The Chaser

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The Chaser
The full Chaser team (from left to right), Julian Morrow, Dominic Knight, Charles Firth, Craig Reucassel, Chas Licciardello, Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen appearing on the War on Everything studio together.
Medium	Print, Radio, Television & Stage
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1999 - present
Genres	Comedy
Notable works and roles	The Chaser (1999 - 2005) CNNNN (2002 - 2003) Cirque du Chaser (2005) The Chaser's War on Everything (2006 - 2007) The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour (2008)
Members	Charles Firth Andrew Hansen Dominic Knight Chas Licciardello Julian Morrow Craig Reucassel Chris Taylor

The Chaser is an Australian satirical comedian group, most famous for their television programmes on ABC TV. The Chaser originated as a satirical newspaper which was known to push the limits as to what it published and for enacting its mission statement, "striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence".^[1]

Contents 1 The Chaser 2 The Chaser projects 2.1 The Chaser newspaper 2.2 The Chaser on television and radio 2.3 The War on Everything 3 Public reactions 3.1 APEC arrest 4 References 5 External links

[edit] The Chaser

The Chaser’s earliest foundations were Charles Firth, Dominic Knight and Chas Licciardello who went to Sydney Grammar School together and produced a small satirical school magazine entitled The Tiger.^[2] Later on, Firth and Knight met Craig Reucassel and Julian Morrow at the University of Sydney. Firth, Knight, Reucassel, Morrow, Licciardello, and later Chaser members Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen all went to the University of Sydney. Firth, Knight, Reucassel and Morrow began writing for the University of Sydney student newspaper entitled Honi Soit.^[3] In 1999 the four members began The Chaser and their first newspaper project entitled The Chaser.^[4] The Chaser members are:

• Charles Firth. Firth decided in 1999 that the founding members should produce a newspaper, in an attempt not to "grow up". Firth was the main person who got the project underway and was at the helm of the newspaper until its collapse in 2005.^[3][5] Firth appeared in The Chaser's television and radio productions until 2004. In 2005, Firth moved to the United States so his wife could finish her PhD.^[6] Firth, however became The Chaser's American correspondent for the 2006 series of the The Chaser's War on Everything and wrote a book titled American Hoax.^[7] Firth did some final stunts in America for the 2007 series in late 2006 and early 2007, before returning to Australia and going solo.^[8] Firth then began his own satirical newspaper The Manic Times in 2007, which collapsed soon after and now exists online.^[5]

• Dominic Knight was one of the founding members of the team. He appeared and starred in the 2001 series of The Election Chaser and the 2005 mini series Chaser News Alert. He also performed in the stage shows. He normally writes and does not perform for The Chaser's television shows.

• Julian Morrow. He became the executive producer of the television series after Andrew Denton left the role in 2004.^[9]

• Craig Reucassel was a founding member of the team.

• Chas Licciardello, who had attended Sydney Grammar School with Firth and Knight, started to work on The Chaser newspaper in 1999, but did not take any credit for his work. However when the newspaper started to go well, he was happy to put his name to his work. Licciardello refers to himself as a writer and not a performer, which is why he does the ‘edgier’ stunts in the television series. He states that he is not very talented and therefore does “lots of dodgy material”.^[10]

• Chris Taylor had gone to the University of Sydney but never personally knew the four founding members. He moved to Melbourne under a cadetship with the ABC doing journalism. Taylor approached The Chaser, based in Sydney, and asked if they took contributions and The Chaser accepted them. Taylor spent two years emailing his articles to The Chaser, and then quit his job to do a television series based on the 2001 Australian federal election with The Chaser and became a member of The Chaser.^[11][4] Taylor was the anchor with Reucassel in their television productions CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Chaser’s War on Everything and worked as the script editor for the television shows.^[12]

• Andrew Hansen worked with some of The Chaser members at the University of Sydney while studying literature and history, performing in their early revues. Hansen started working with the online Chaser website in 2000 writing columns for his shITe section, which looked at the worst of the internet. After two years, he was considered for a part in the Chaser’s 2002 television series, for the content on shITe. After The Election Chaser in 2001, The Chaser decided they needed a performer in the team. Hansen then joined in the group in 2002.^[13][3]

[edit] The Chaser projects

[edit] The Chaser newspaper

Main article: The Chaser (newspaper)

The newspaper, first published in 1999, was The Chaser team's first enterprise. The Chaser only had a limited fan base, with the average sales numbers per issue well under 30,000. When their newspaper was shown as a lead story in all major Australian news broadcasts, not only was the headline widely spread, but the concept and the popularity of the newspaper leapt dramatically.

Founding contributors to the newspaper include Gregor Stronach, Johanna Featherstone, Sholto Macpherson, Matt Taylor, David Stewart and Arion McNicoll. Later contributors include Kara Greiner, Richard Cooke, Shane Cubis and Tim Brunero. Cartoonists Fiona Katauskas and Andrew Weldon drew for the newspaper from its early days.^{[citation needed]}

The Chaser and its writers had its first major controversy when their 21 February 2003 edition published Prime Minister John Howard’s private home number on its front page with the headline Howard ignores the people. So call him at home on (02) 9922 6189. The release of the number comes after Howard’s attitude to half a million protesters recently marching for peace. Howard’s number was blocked by the afternoon after receiving many calls in the morning and federal police had been to The Chaser headquarters. The Chaser have stated they received the phone number via an SMS message in 2002.^[4][14]

The Chaser have released five annuals based on The Chaser newspaper:

Main article: The Chaser Annual

• The Chaser Annual 2000: The Little-Read Book
• The Chaser Annual 2001: Bradman, The Cremated Years
• The Chaser Annual 2002: The War on Error
• Embedded with The Chaser: Annual 2003
• The Chaser Annual 2004: Intelligence Failures

After six years of publication, The Chaser decided that due to inability to meet production costs and failing audiences that they would cease publication of the newspaper. The paper, which originally circulated fortnightly, was being released more sporadic and their 91st and final paper was released on 6 February 2005. The Chaser still planned to continue their writing online and to continue write their annuals.^[14]

The Chaser has since released three annuals and a "best of" annual which compiled the best of the five preceding annuals:

• The Chaser Annual 2005: By Dan Brown
• 50 Golden Years of The Chaser - 1955-2005
• The Chaser Annual 2006: Burqa's Backyard
• The Chaser Annual 2007: The Other Secret

Current writers online are Richard Cooke, Shane Cubis, Dominic Knight, Chas Licciardello, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel with additional material provided by Scott Dooley, Lisa Pryor, David Stewart, Gregor Stronach and Chris Taylor.^[15]

[edit] The Chaser on television and radio

After two years of their satirical newspaper, which also included various radio roles, the Chaser had attracted the attention of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) star Andrew Denton. Denton signed them with the ABC and stated about the Chaser “They've got the talent, the work ethic, the fearlessness, the desire”. Denton then helped the Chaser to perform, on ABC TV, their first television program The Election Chaser which was to be based on the 2001 Australian federal election, and in the format of the national tallyroom. The show broadcasted four episodes and was nominated for the 2002 Logie for Most Outstanding Comedy Program^[16] Denton acted as executive producer and script editor for The Election Chaser and would also do so for CNNNN.^[17][9]

The Chaser team have gone on to create other television shows for ABC TV, including the Logie Award winning CNNNN in 2002-3 and The Chaser Decides in 2004. CNNNN was a satire of not only the popular American news networks CNN and Fox News, but also incorporated Australian and world current affairs into the programme. The Election Chaser inspired a similar programme covering the 2004 election, The Chaser Decides. The coverage, as with all the Chaser productions, was satirical, but a different view on the way the election was covered by the local media. In mid-October 2007 it was announced The Chaser Decides would air again in 2007 to cover the November 24 election, for two weeks.

In 2004-5 Taylor and Reucassel hosted the Triple J radio drive programme, Today Today. In 2005 the rest of the team produced Chaser News Alert (CNA), aired on ABC2. Episodes of this series were only a few minutes long. July 2006 and January 2007 saw Taylor and Reucassel return to Triple J to host Bloody Sunday, filling the This Sporting Life time slot while Roy & HG were on leave from the station. Chas Licciardello and Knight also did a brief fill in show on Triple M called Chas and Dom from 'The Chaser'.

[edit] The War on Everything

Main article: Cirque du Chaser

In March 2005 for the Sydney Big Laugh Comedy Festival The Chaser members, except Firth, wrote and performed with CNNNN collaborator Rebecca De Unamuno a stage production. Cirque du Chaser, the name a parody of Cirque du Soleil, was performed to eight sell-out audiences which performed stand up, sketch, live music, and video satire. The Chaser then took the show on a national tour which were also sold out. Cirque du Chaser gave the team confidence to perform in front of a live audience in their new television show, which would be similar to the stage show.^[18][19] The Chaser filmed a pilot for ABC TV in mid 2005 under the working title Hey, Hey it’s the Chaser. ^[20]

Main article: The Chaser's War on Everything

The Chaser team signed a contract with the ABC to produce 27 half hour episodes for 2006, which would be based on news reviews, studio monologues and confrontations with politicians, celebrities, and business leaders. The project would be performed in front of a live audience compared with their previous news format television productions and was named The Chaser's War on Everything.^[21] The first season of The Chaser's War on Everything premiered on ABC TV on 17 February 2006 at 9:45 pm.^[22] The series aired late on Friday evenings where it developed a cult following, getting an average national audience of between 591,000 and 821,000 viewers each episode.^[23] The last episode of the 2006 season was broadcast on 8 September 2006.

The first thirteen episodes of the first season were released on DVD on 17 August 2006. The release included commentary by The Chaser and the show's crew and included bonus features and unaired scenes.^[24][25] The second DVD for the first season contained the latter thirteen episodes. It was in the same format of the first DVD and was released on 1 November 2006.^[26]

The Chaser's War on Everything returned for a second season on Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 9pm, moving from their Friday night timeslot. It regularly attracts more than a million viewers per episode.^[27]

After the June 20 episode of Season Two, the Chaser team suspended the series for ten weeks, so the usual production run time of twenty-six episodes per year does not conclude before the 2007 Australian Federal Election.^[28] The second season returned on 5th September 2007.

The Chaser recently announced ^[29] that The Chaser's War On Everything will be on hold for the first half of 2008, and are still in negotiations with the ABC over future television productions. Instead, the team (minus Chris Taylor, but plus writer Dominic Knight) will tour with a new stage show, The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour. This stage show will be produced in conjunction with Laughing Stock and will tour across Australia.

[edit] Public reactions

Due to the youth appeal of The Chaser, the team are often dubbed "The Chaser boys." This is misleading, as most of the Chaser team were near or past thirty when the term came into popular use.

See also: The Chaser's War on Everything#Controversies and well-known stunts

In July 2006, Licciardello faced charges of "offensive conduct" from the New South Wales Police Force, after turning up at a rugby league football match between the Canterbury Bulldogs and the St George Illawarra Dragons on 14 July 2006 dressed up as a Bulldogs fan and attempting to sell fake knives, knuckledusters and balaclavas for a War on Everything sketch.^[30][31]

In April 2007, a 15 year old boy duped YouTube into deleting all clips posted from The Chaser's War On Everything by claiming to be a representative of the ABC.^[32] They were later reinstated.

At the 2007 Logie Awards some of the Chaser team were "manhandled" by Crown Casino security staff on the red carpet before being closely supervised for the rest of the evening^[33].

During Dick Cheney's visit to Australia in 2007, The Chaser team were included on the official list of terrorists, anarchists and protesters deemed to pose a threat to the US Vice-President.^[34]

The Chaser team gained notoriety and considerable media attention over "The Eulogy Song", written by Chris Taylor and performed by Andrew Hansen on the October 17, 2007 episode of The Chaser's War On Everything. The song satirised the media's posthumous praise of deceased celebrities, regardless of their behaviour in life, and mentioned among others Peter Brock, Stan Zemanek, Princess Diana, Steve Irwin, Donald Bradman, and Kerry Packer. The song attracted comment from both the media and politicians including Kevin Rudd and John Howard, the latter of whom used reference to the song in remarks during a sketch later aired on the programme.^[35]

[edit] APEC arrest

Further information: The Chaser APEC pranks#Breach of APEC restricted zone

Morrow and Licciardello were arrested by NSW Police on 6 September 2007 outside the InterContinental Hotel after driving a fake motorcade through the Sydney central business district and breaching an APEC security zone.^[36] The Chaser crew entered a secure area by masquerading as the motorcade of the Canadian delegation to APEC. They were arrested by police after Licciardello emerged in Bin Laden costume near the hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush was staying.^[37] They were subsequently detained, taken to Surry Hills Police Station for questioning and charged with entering a restricted area without special justification under the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007.^[38][39] Licciardello, Morrow and the nine other production members were released on bail to appear in court on 4 October 2007.^[40] If found guilty, they were liable to serve a maximum 6 months imprisonment, or a maximum 2 years imprisonment if they also had possession or control of a prohibited item with no special justification.^[41] The Chaser team issued a statement on September 6 that they had been given permission by police officers to enter the restricted area.^[42] Under section 37(2)(b) of the legislation a person has special justification to be in an area if "the person is required, authorised or permitted to be in the area by the Commissioner or a police officer". Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned until 5 December 2007 at the request of ABC lawyers.^[43] The charges were dropped near the end of April 2008.

The day after the APEC stunt, police questioned Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor and Dominic Knight and a film crew from the Chaser after they were involved in a second stunt in central Sydney ^[44]. The three were released by police after being briefly questioned for carrying around black cardboard boxes dressed up as limousines.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Chaser official website
• The Chaser's War on Everything

v • d • e The Chaser Members Charles Firth • Andrew Hansen • Dominic Knight • Chas Licciardello • Julian Morrow • Craig Reucassel • Chris Taylor Literary Productions The Chaser • The Chaser Annual Television Productions The Election Chaser / The Chaser Decides • CNNNN • Chaser News Alert • The Chaser's War on Everything (episodes) Radio Productions Today Today / Bloody Sunday • Chas and Dom Stage Productions Cirque du Chaser • Dead Caesar • The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour Miscellaneous 2007 APEC pranks