Doug Anthony Allstars

The 'bad boys of Australian comedy', D.A.A.S. formed around 1984 and survived together for a decade before splitting in 1994, due to 'creative differences'. Three men who wouldn't go past stripping, swearing at and generally insulting and bullying audience members ("In fact, this goes out to anyone who was ever born of a mother, which fucking rules you out, you ugly bastard!" - Paul) and who used topics such as necrophilia, beastiality and abuse as a basis for many of their songs and comedy routines. And yet, Richard Fidler, Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson created some of the sweetest harmonies ever sung, as well as being pretty damn sexy as well (at times, anyway!).

The Good
Tim, the self-proclaimed gorgeous Doug, often saw himself as a prospective politician. In fact he actually ran against Andrew Peacock for the seat of Kooyong, and got 5% of the vote (despite continually bagging Kooyong, and saying how he'd never been there)! Tim once described his life as being full of 'loose cars' and 'fast women'. The tallest member of the group, and the one shaped most like a pole, Tim confessed to being a 'chubby chaser' on stage, and can be quoted as saying: "I know what I find attractive in pigs...I like the way their trotters can never undo the ropes!"

The Bad
It would be obvious to anyone who has ever seen any of the Dougs performances, that this title belongs to Paul. The shortest Doug, with the most anger and viciousness on stage, is also the one with the most beautiful voice, and the one who can look most angelic. When performing he appeared to be a walking contradiction, first singing a song entitled I Fuck Dogs', then chastising the audience for laughing at it. I think Paul was probably the most popular Doug, with his boyish looks, and extremely bad language! It was Paul who would crack the shits with Tim and attack him, Paul who would take on an audience member twice his size, and Paul who was rumoured to knock out British pop star, George Michael, in a nightclub.

The Guitarist
I'll admit it straight away, Richard is my favourite Allstar, but I'll try and give him the same amount of space as the other two. Richard played the 'happy victim' in D.A.A.S. He was usually bullied by both Tim and Paul, although on occasion he could give as good as he got! Although his stage character was extremely naive at times ("I've never seen a naked girl before!") and sometimes didn't understand the jokes, he would join Paul and Tim in singing rude songs and abusing the audience. He was, obviously, the guitarist, and would sing, dance around and play the guitar all at the same time when on stage. He has a low voice, and so rarely sang lead vocals, however his song When I Get Famous There'll Be So Many People Want To Know Me was popular, with me at least!

The characters of the three Allstars is best summed up with the following quote from the mermaid Priscilla in Episode One of their TV show, DAAS Kapital: "Paul's the one you'd do it with, Tim's the one you'd think about while you're doing it to Paul, but Richard, you're the one you'd marry!" Just as a bit of trivia, the lady who played Priscilla (and also the Shitsu Tonka news lady) was Khym Lam, who Richard did actually marry!

The Doug Anthony Allstars toured Britain as well as their home land of Australia, and have performed at the both the Edinborough and Melbourne Comedy Festivals. They were regulars on the Big Gig on the ABC for a while, and wrote and performed in their own show, as I mentioned before, called DAAS Kapital, which they made two series of seven episodes each, which were also screened on the ABC, and then rescreened on Foxtel's thecomedychannel (along with repeats of the Big Gig).

Paul was not an original member of the Doug Anthony Allstars. He became friends with Richard, and replaced Robert Piper, who left the group when his study became more important.