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| Paul McDermott |
| Paul Anthony Xavier McDermott was born in Cavalry Hospital, Adelaide on 13th May, 1962 at 12:55 am, a minute after his twin sister Sharon, which makes him a Taurus (yay!) with an Aquarius rising. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 3 oz. His parents are John and Betty, who are strict Catholics, and he is the second eldest of six children. When he was three, he moved to Canberra to live. After finishing high school, Paul went to art school, where he was an excellent student, but due to the lack of money, he had to steal his canvases from the back of the art rooms. Paul performed in a group called Gigantic Fly to pay for his canvases and after a gig, he struck up a conversation with Richard Fidler, who had a band with two other men, Tim Ferguson, and Robert Piper. Robert had fallen sick, and Richard asked Paul to take his place. Soon after, Robert left for Paris, and Richard asked Paul to take Robert's place permanently. Paul had been offered an exhibition in the National Gallery, but was lured by fame and fortune to go with the Doug Anthony Allstars. After the Allstars split in 1994, Paul had a break from the world of showbiz. In 1996, he decided to write a play called MOSH, which was basically him and six dancers. He got rave reviews and MOSH was named Pick of the Fringe in the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Ted Robinson, who worked with Paul on DAAS Kapital, asked him to host a show called Good News Week. Paul agreed and he even cut his dreadlocks off to launch the show in 1996 with Mikey Robins and Anthony Ackroyd. Soon, Anthony was replaced with Julie McCrossin. In 1997, Paul used to work with Mikey on a radio serial called Captain Pants in which Paul played Cabin Boy Twinkle. Paul now lives in a flat in Bondi and he has a girlfriend, Johannah, who is a lecturer/tutor at a university. Paul also writes a bi-weekly column for the Australian, and he has written and directed a short film called Balloon Girl, plus he has written a book of all his newspaper columns, etc, called The Forgetting of Wisdom, which retails at $19.95. He is also releasing a series of children's books he has written and illustrated, plus continuing his film work. Facts: Paul is short-sighted with mild colour blindness. Due to this, his teachers thought he was stupid, until they found out they had to move him to the front of the classroom instead of the back. His paintings are exhibited all over the country, including some in the National Gallery, and his specialties are skulls, flowers, and semi-classical landscapes. His first job was working in a bank as a teller. He also has a severe allergy to cherries. His mum saw the Allstars whenever they were in Canberra while his dad only saw them once. Afterwards he told him that he ‘doesn’t need the other two’ and ‘I wish you would stop telling all the dirty jokes.’ |
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