In Eve of Destruction, Shaun Micallef evokes the spirit of Parky

For more than two decades, the late, great Michael Parkinson reigned like royalty over one of TV’s most enduring kingdoms, the talk show. The smooth-as-silk Englishman made hosting look easy as he brought extensive research, a mellow manner, curiosity and a welcome humour to his encounters with myriad people from a range of fields.

In the introduction to the compilation, Parkinson in Australia Best of 82 and 83 (ABC iview), Parky, as he was widely and affectionately known, deftly describes the discipline at which he excelled: “I’ve always thought of the talk show as being unnatural acts performed by two or more people in public,” he explains. “What’s unnatural about it is, in an atmosphere designed to test the strongest nerve, surrounded by a million dollars worth of awesome technology, the guest is supposed to have an intimate and relaxed chat with the host.

Michael Parkinson and Thomas Keneally in Parkinson in Australia back in 1981.Credit: ABC

“Well, sometimes, it never happens; sometimes the interviewer and interviewee find themselves in a conversational no man’s land where the only thing they’ve got in common is the desire to be somewhere else.

“Sometimes, though, it works and the people forget their surroundings long enough to relax and give the audience a glimpse of the private self behind the public image. Childhood, adolescence, the terrible business of growing up are things that we all have in common and are fruitful areas for revelations and humour.”

For his spin on the talk show, Shaun Micallef appears to have taken Parky’s observations to heart, if not directly, then certainly in spirit. The set-up for Eve of Destruction (ABC iview) sees guests – two per half-hour episode – having to imagine that their home is being destroyed and that they’re only able to save two precious objects. They arrive at the studio with these significant items and are questioned about their choices: which items they’ve rescued and why they’re special.

Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction: reliably revealing.Credit: ABC

Perhaps predictably, through the eight-episode first season, which has just finished its run, there’s a lot of discussion of childhood, parents and formative experiences. Actress Pia Miranda brings her still-comforting Humphrey B. Bear soft toy; comedian Peter Helliar has the storybooks he wrote as a boy; performer and internet drawcard Jimmy Rees (nee Giggle) has the Nintendo 64 and Donkey Kong cartridge he saved pocket money to buy; actress, writer and producer Robyn Butler has her father’s diary from 1975.

As with Take 5 with Zan Rowe, an ABC gem that’s just started its third season (Tuesdays, 8.30pm and ABC iview), Eve of Destruction presents a rewarding variation on a staple that can seem static. The typical talk show has guests who appear to plug their latest work: they’re available as required to perform promotional duties. The chat might grow into more than that, or it might not.

Here, though, as with Rowe’s show, the guests have presumably been invited because they’re interesting people and good talkers. And as they’ve shaped the agenda, here with their choice of objects and on Rowe’s show with the songs that they’ve selected, they arrive ready to discuss those choices. This reliably reveals something about them, something more substantial than how thrilled they are about their latest film, play, book, album or TV show.

Micallef might not be a natural fit for a conventional talk show. He didn’t sit comfortably on Nine’s short-lived 2003 Micallef Tonight, when he was shoe-horned into a variety-show format. Here, though, in a format he’s helped to create, he has more room to roam and it pays off. While the goal of entertaining conversation lies at the heart of the show, Eve of Destruction is embellished by Micallefian touches, the trademark nuttiness he’s always brought to his projects.

The comedian in 2003, presenting Micallef Tonight.Credit:

The reasons for the guests’ houses’ destruction, for example, might be described as a Vegemite factory exploding, an alien invasion or a volcano eruption. When the interviewees arrive on the set, Micallef, tongue firmly in cheek, awkwardly plays the good host, offering them a welcome snack, which most politely decline: it could be scones, cream buns or frogs in a pond (for the uninitiated, they’re chocolate frogs set in green jelly). A number of alleged ABC personalities, their actual identities concealed by hazmat suits, astronaut uniforms or some other wacky costume befitting the episode’s destruction scenario, deliver the memorabilia and later mock-destroy the unfortunate item voted to be the least valuable.

Deliberately silly bits of business aside, the conversations through the season have been animated and revealing. It’s a joy, for example, to see Butler – another local TV treasure – happily ribbing the host about his childhood activities, chiming in with a (good) question for fellow guest Rees, and briefly swapping seats with Micallef when he acknowledges that her question would’ve been an ideal follow-up to Rees’ remark. Her discussion of her dad’s diary is wonderful and when she challenges Micallef’s faux-nostalgic childhood recollections about playing outside, it allows him space to offer that he was, in fact, more likely to go to the library to photocopy articles by S.J. Perelman from The New Yorker.

In Eve of Destruction, Micallef’s elegant oddball persona is on happy display. The atmosphere in the studio is upbeat, genial and generously forthcoming, exactly what one hopes for in a talk show but, as Parky noted, doesn’t always materialise. One of the regular occurrences through the season is the host, eyes lighting up when he hears something he wants to explore further, saying, “This is interesting. Now we’re getting somewhere ...”

Micallef has long been a rule-breaker and a disrupter, a writer, producer, presenter and performer who’s ceaselessly inventive and brings a unique and distinctive sensibility to anything he’s been given licence to create. His wildly varied CV, befitting someone with an inquiring mind and a restless creative spirit, is testament to that. A by-no-means exhaustive resume indicates that he trained as a lawyer and then worked as a comedy writer and performer (Full Frontal); created and starred in comedy shows (various incarnations of The Micallef Program, Welcher & Welcher), current-affairs satires (Newstopia) and a crime-caper series (Mr & Mrs Murder).

He’s worked as an actor (SeaChange, Offspring) and hosted quiz shows (Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation, Brain Eisteddfod). He’s co-produced and presented documentaries about Australia’s drinking culture (On the Sauce) and religion (Stairway to Heaven), and written books, plays and a memoir.

He’s a unique talent and thank goodness his 2022 retirement from Mad as Hell after 10 years proved only a finale for that show and not his retirement from TV.

Whatever he comes up with next, here’s hoping it includes another season of Eve of Destruction.

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