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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n AAA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mick Molloy has a word of warning for his famous friends. \u201cIf you did a uni revue back in 1982, and you did some blackface, someone can find it, someone can get there.\u201d<\/p>\n He should know. In the course of putting together the new show Glenn and Mick\u2019s Celebrity Intervention<\/i><\/a>, he and co-host Glenn Robbins have had the dubious pleasure of trawling through reams of material from the darkest corners of their guests\u2019 lives with the aim of finding the most embarrassing material they can put to air.<\/p>\n If Molloy\u2019s other show on Seven aims to capture the mood of a conversation in the front bar of your local pub, this one has the feel of an altogether different bar \u2013 the prosecution bench in the courtroom of public opinion.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/div>\n \u201cThe audience is the jury, and we\u2019re sitting there going, \u2018What have you got to say for yourself?\u2019\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n Molloy, who came up with the concept, admits he loves \u201cdoing an archaeological dig on someone\u201d, but says the task is made that much easier by the fact friends of the celebrity guests \u2013 who in this run of eight episodes include Sam Pang, Carrie Bickmore, Chris Brown, Dave Hughes and Guy Sebastian \u2013 \u201care more than willing to cough up [material] to bring out the dead\u201d.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s all in the name of fun. This show is essentially the love child of This is Your Life<\/i> and the celebrity roast, the way they used to be done back in the Dean Martin days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all made with love,\u201d says Molloy, who adds that in his view, modern-day roasts have become \u201creally nasty shit\u201d.<\/p>\n This version asks, \u201cHow can you capture the vibe of tearing your mate down with friendly fire in a modern context?\u201d His answer: you make it \u201ctouchy-feely\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you say something to your friend, it should be coming from a place of help,\u201d says Molloy. \u201cEven footy coaches at half-time can\u2019t thump the table any more. You\u2019ve got to slip the pill in the dog food.\u201d<\/p>\n Mick Molloy (left) and Glenn Robbins with two of their celebrity co-hosts, Kate Langbroek (left) and Carrie Bickmore, on Glenn and Mick\u2019s Celebrity Intervention. <\/span><\/p>\n There was a bit of sleight of hand about Molloy\u2019s approach when he invited Robbins, best known as Kath\u2019s butcher-dancer-lover husband Kel in Kath & Kim<\/i>, to be part of the show he was cooking up.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said to me, \u2018I\u2019ve got this idea where you and I help people with their relationships\u2019,\u201d says Robbins, who first met his co-conspirator in the late 1980s when the pair worked together on sketch show The Comedy Company<\/i> (Robbins as a performer, Molloy as a writer, where he was credited \u2013 for the first and only time \u2013 as \u201cMichael Molloy\u201d).<\/p>\n Robbins\u2019 first response was disbelief. \u201cI\u2019m going, \u2018Mick Molloy helping people?\u2019 I didn\u2019t want to say no, though; I was happy to have a chat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/div>\n Still, when they met, he recalls: \u201cI\u2019m sitting there thinking how am I gonna say to Mick that I am not in any way qualified, and nor are you, to advise people. That\u2019s just got f—ing danger written all over it. I was gonna say, \u2018You know what, don\u2019t do it\u2019. But because it had taken so long [to set up the meeting] it had evolved, and when he told me the idea, I went, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s great\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, he admits, that might just have been the relief kicking in.<\/p>\n At first, Robbins wasn\u2019t sure what he could bring to the concept. \u201cI trust other people\u2019s judgment of me more than I trust my own,\u201d he says. \u201cMick saw something in my approach that fitted the model, and I now agree.\u201d<\/p>\n You might boil that something down to playing the good cop to Molloy\u2019s bad.<\/p>\n Molloy (second from left, back row) with the D-Generation in 1992.<\/span>Greg Noakes\/ABC<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t overplay that card,\u201d says Robbins. \u201cBut it\u2019s really fun to see the guests get whacked by Mick, and then for me to whack him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The show is filmed before a studio audience, then trimmed to produce a lean, mean 40-odd minutes of air time.<\/p>\n I\u2019m invited along to a recording in the same South Melbourne studio complex where The Front Bar<\/i> is filmed. There\u2019s room for about 100 people in the audience, and the crowd files in about 10 minutes before the episode is taped. The warm-up guy works hard to get everyone revved up \u2013 \u201cthe more you laugh, the better the show will be; they feed off your energy\u201d, he says \u2013 and then Molloy enters, with this week\u2019s guest co-host by his side.<\/p>\n You\u2019re kidding: Molloy originally pitched Robbins the idea of a show in which they would help people with their relationships.<\/span>Simon Schluter<\/span><\/p>\n This time out, it\u2019s Denise Scott, the 70-year-old veteran stand-up, Mother and Son<\/i> reboot star and cancer survivor<\/a>. Her schtick is loose, rambly, a little befuddled, and her interaction with the meat on this evening\u2019s roast \u2013 one Dr Chris Brown, aka the Bondi Vet<\/i> \u2013 is hilarious. It will definitely need to be trimmed of fat, but what\u2019s left should have a very high marble score indeed.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a quick intro, then Molloy throws to Robbins, who is ostensibly out in the field, concocting some lame cover story to get the celebrity into the studio. This pre-taped segment is so transparently fake it might have come from The Late Show, where Molloy first emerged as part of the D-Generation alongside the Working Dog crew<\/a>, Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy and Tom Gleisner (plus Jason Stephens and Tony Martin).<\/p>\n Then Robbins leads Brown into the studio, he acts surprised, and we\u2019re off. Lots of gags about his preternaturally square jaw and his propensity for appearing in budgie smugglers follow, with Scott fawning over his physique and Molloy telling him he should be embarrassed.<\/p>\n It is unashamedly light entertainment, pitched squarely at the audience of The Front Bar, and making extensive use of the Seven stable as well as the co-hosts\u2019 contact books. But not everyone said yes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRelated Article<\/h2>\n
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