Andrew Denton

Andrew Denton
Birth name	Andrew Christopher Denton
Born	(1960-05-04) 4 May 1960 Sydney, Australia
Years active	1980s–present
Spouse	Jennifer Byrne 1 child, Connor (born 1994)
Notable works and roles	Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, God on My Side, Blah Blah Blah, Triple M Network

Andrew Christopher Denton (born 4 May 1960) is an Australian comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique. He is also responsible for introducing the troupe The Chaser to Australian audiences.

Early life

Andrew Denton is the son of Kit Denton, the author of The Breaker, a novel about Australian soldier and folk hero Breaker Morant. He went to Roseville Primary School in Sydney before attending Blue Mountains Grammar School in Wentworth Falls. In 1977 he attended Guildford Grammar School. Despite attending a number of religious schools, he is now an atheist. Denton studied Media and Communications at Charles Sturt University (then Mitchell College of Advanced Education). He was involved in the campus radio station, 2MCE. He now resides in Sydney.

Career

Radio

Andrew Denton worked on Australian national radio stations early in his media career. Beginning as a writer for radio personality Doug Mulray on Triple M, and later appearing on the show as "Andrew the boy wonder from indoor cricket", he went on to write and host his own show. He also had an early involvement in the Sydney Theatresports movement.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, musicians from Led Zeppelin, later appeared on Denton to perform a Rolf Harris song (Rolf performed a notable version of Stairway, with wobble-board solo). Denton saw the beginning of the Musical Challenge segment, and would challenge musical guests to perform a song from a barrel full of well-known songs. This segment evolved during his time on Triple M, resulting in three albums with tracks including Tina Arena singing 'Cheap Wine', The Wiggles singing Long way to the Top, Neil Finn performing Sexual Healing, James Reyne performing Wuthering Heights, Barenaked Ladies performing When Doves Cry and Paul Kelly performing Little Red Corvette. Two volumes were released on CD titled Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge.

He also appeared as Malcolm Turnbull in the Belvoir St Theatre production of A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy, written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, and participated in the early years of the ABC's World Series Debating.

Denton had an extended stint as a morning radio host for the Triple M Network in Sydney, with the assistance of Amanda Keller (who had regularly appeared on Denton). Segments included musical challenges. His time on Triple M also included the infamous "House from Hell" competition, in which various contestants were placed in a house together and involved in various stunts, tricks and tortures. Denton has said in radio interviews that he regrets being involved in the program, due to the unacceptable level of human manipulation.

Television

During the 1990s, he worked on and hosted TV shows, including Blah Blah Blah, The Money or the Gun, Live and Sweaty, and his own comedy talk show, Denton. The first three of these appeared on the ABC, while the last was on the Seven Network. Each week on The Money or the Gun, Andrew had a musical guest play a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" in styles ranging from grand opera to the quirky pop of The B-52's. This resulted in an album with 22 of the covers and a video with 25 (three highly visual covers, including the Castanet Club's "pirate" themed entry, were not included on the album).

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, musicians from Led Zeppelin, later appeared on Denton to perform a Rolf Harris song (Rolf performed a notable version of Stairway, with wobble-board solo). Denton saw the beginning of the Musical Challenge segment, and would challenge musical guests to perform a song from a barrel full of well-known songs. This segment evolved during his time on Triple M, resulting in three albums with tracks including Tina Arena singing 'Cheap Wine', The Wiggles singing Long way to the Top, Neil Finn performing Sexual Healing, James Reyne performing Wuthering Heights, Barenaked Ladies performing When Doves Cry and Paul Kelly performing Little Red Corvette. Two volumes were released on CD titled Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge.

In 2003, Denton began hosting Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, which became a hit for the ABC. Denton was also executive producer and script editor for ABC's The Election Chaser and CNNNN. In an audience development survey in 2004, respondents named Denton one of the "most liked and recognisable" personalities on Australian television. Enough Rope ended in late 2008.

Asked about the best skill an interviewer can bring to the job, Denton said: "Research, clearly. Listening, obviously. And leaving myself open to the possibility it won’t go the way I expect." Asked if there was an interview he wished he could do again, he said: "I did an interview with Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and it was a crap interview because I am not very interested in royalty. Having accepted to do the interview, I should have found a way to get myself interested. If I wasn’t interested, why would the audience be? That was a great kick up the bum for me. It’s a lesson – I’ve learned it many times, but you always have to relearn it – just when you think you’re good at something, you find out what you’re not good at. It just reminded me, you can’t ever be lazy about it."

In 2009, Denton hosted the second season of Elders.

Film

Denton's first feature-length documentary, God on My Side, documents his visit to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. It was first shown at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2006 with plans to show it as a TV special on ABC's Enough Rope. It was screened in Australian cinemas from 2 November 2006. Denton has insisted he is not anti-Christian.

Stage

He also appeared as Malcolm Turnbull in the Belvoir St Theatre production of A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy, written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, and participated in the early years of the ABC's World Series Debating.

Production

Denton's production company is named Zapruder's Other Films Pty Ltd, a reference to Abraham Zapruder who filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His production company was behind the short-lived talk show, David Tench Tonight, on Network Ten which used a computer-generated host named David Tench. The show had one season before being cancelled in April 2007. Since 2008 Denton has produced The Gruen Transfer, which airs on ABC1, and since 2009, has produced Hungry Beast, also on ABC1. In 2009, he produced 30 Seconds, which aired on The Comedy Channel.

Awards / Logies

Denton has been involved in the Logie Awards for a number of years. He hosted the awards ceremony twice, in 1999 and in 2000. Denton has been nominated for several Logie awards:

• the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television in 2008 and 2009, for his role in Enough Rope
• the 'Most Popular Presenter' award in 2005, 2008 and 2009, for his role in Enough Rope
• the 'Most Popular Comedy Personality' award in 1996, for his role in Denton.

Personal life

Andrew Denton and his wife, television journalist Jennifer Byrne have a son, Connor, born in 1994. Denton is Template:M to ft in tall; he is an avid supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.. Andrew was raised Roman Catholic but is now an atheist.

Other 'notes'

While presenting Denton (the televsion series), Andrew Denton launched a public subscription scheme to hire a bounty hunter to capture Christopher Skase, who was attempting to avoid extradition to Australia at the time. When told that his repeated statements against Skase could expose him to legal action, Denton said, "If he's got a problem, he can come here and sue me". He had a cameo appearance in the Australian film Let's Get Skase. He stopped accepting 20 cent contributions to kidnap Skase, due to a specific request by the Attorney-General.

External links

• Andrew Denton at the Internet Movie Database
• Enough Rope official website
• "Zapruder's other films" official website