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Best School Memory: Easy. Annual drama competitions on the school hall stage. Astonishingly supportive teachers gave us acres of time and there were plenty of good roles for girls.
Worst School Memory: Year 12 exams. I've never felt such stress before or since. Live telly is a breeze in comparison.
How Has Education Helped Get You Where You Are Today? Education teaches me how to think, talk and appreciate complexity. It breaks me out of the narrow confines of my own experience and enables me to see other points of view.
Advice To Students: Keep looking until you find subjects or teachers that make your heart dance. Then try as hard as you can to do well. Education is the key to interesting work with a decent wage. The real challenge is finding out what you want to do. But finish something. So long as you keep trying, you've never really failed.
Mc Crossin leads a team of special guests each week into a verbal jousting tournament against a team lead by Triple J's Mikey Robins. If you have ever wondered why the wide-eyed gay activist has a pantomime gesture to physically illustrate her stories, it is because she spent seven years in children's theatre.
"I thank God I had seven years in children's theatre-it's good grounding for GNW," she says. Only the scathing commentaries delivered by host Paul McDermott are scripted- the rest is improvised. McCrossin says political satire and humour is the best way to bring the community awareness and social change, McCrossin realized she was gay at the age of 18 and has lived openly all her adult life. And she is a member of the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation.
"I have a passionate activist about many issues," she says. She is one of the 78ers- the marchers in the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1978. McCrossin was a street reporter at this year's Mardi Gras and in April will report for Sydney's Anzac Parade. "It's exciting to live long enough to see it possible for someone like me to do both parades," she says.
McCrossin's career as a performer started at Bald face Public Primary school, near the Georges River in Sydney, when she played a duck in fourth grade. She was so excited that she practiced bouncing up and down and quacking on the street while she was shopping with her mum. "I looked up to see my teacher driving past and she was killing herself laughing," she says. "I'm still overkeen. I'm still quacking."
But where did McCrossin come from? Here was a woman, utterly at ease with the camera, confident, warm and funny, who seemed to have sprung from nowhere.
"I suppose it's a bit of a commentary on the size of the Radio National audience, that's the terrible truth," McCrossin muses. "And yet, my whole adult life has been spent standing up in front of groups of people talking, or on the radio, but not in a high-profile way."
After several years in community theatre, McCrossin worked for Radio National for eight years on projects as varied as The Coming Out Show, Background Briefing and the arts. She has also worked as public relations manager for the New South Wales Public Service, and as a freelance MC-facilitator, coordinating seminars and debates (sometimes as her alter ego, pseudo-psychologist Dr Mary Hartman). It all added up to a mix of experience and anonymity, until Good News Week.
Twelve months ago, after a shaky first year, the ABC granted the show a reprieve from a seemingly inevitable axing. This year, it has gone from strength to strength, with a 1998 season never in doubt. This month, a one hour Good News Week special was recorded in Sydney at the Enmore Theatre, packed with 1700 fans. It will go to air on New Year's Eve.
McCrossin still seems a bit dazed by the event. It is, after all, a mere 18 months since she received a phone call from Ted Robinson (Good News Week's executive producer) asking her to come to Gore Hill. "He just said: 'A couple of people have told us that you've got a point of view and can be funny. Have a go... interject and say something at all costs.'"
"That's the only instruction I've ever had from Ted Robinson: 'Have an opinion and interject,'" McCrossin says. "I actually feel that's something I've been doing all my life! To finally receive it as an instruction was quite remarkable."
Offscreen, in her home in Sydney's innerwest, McCrossin's manner matches her onscreen persona. She confides she has only recently taken to wearing a bra ("Only on telly," she stresses) and more glamorous "frocks". She recalls how the company that offered to help with her onscreen wardrobe kindly recommended its line "for the fuller figure".
She is getting used to celebrity, to the phenomenon of having people in the supermarket ask for her autograph or say things like "My wife loves you". McCrossin shakes her head in wonder: "I mean, I'm gay and I find these sorts of comments, well..." she laughs.
She loves the show's success but is taking nothing for granted. She still works as a freelance compere and goes into Gore Hill on Thursday evenings only when the show is taped.
"I don't think of myself as someone who wants to have a future in television," she says. "I'm loving this and, if something else flows from it, well, that will be great and, if it doesn't, what a great ride it was and I'll get on with what I'm doing otherwise."
McCrossin was brought up in Sydney, the middle one of five children. Her mother stayed at home and reared the children; her father was an orthodontist. "A lot of work has gone into these teeth," she says. "I was a thumb-sucker who had very buck teeth."
In 1972, she enrolled in the arts-law at Sydney University and read The Female Eunuch. "I had that powerful experience that suddenly there were words to describe feelings. It literally changed my life."
McCrossin became a fighter for causes. Looming large among these were the protests to free Violet Roberts and her son Bruce (victims of domestic violence, who were imprisoned for killing their tormentor) and the fight to close Katingal, the sensory-deprivation unit for prisoners. McCrossin says she was "arrested more times than I can remember".
She still feels passionately about causes, notably these days about Wik and Aboriginal reconciliation and describes herself as a libertarian in the spirit of the Sydney Push, the '50s intellectual movement.
"I think of it as a period of oppression, when many people were deeply concerned about the direction of federal and state politics."
But isn't oppression meant to be good for comedy? "A number of people have said to me: 'Would Good News Week be doing so well if Keating or Hawke were in power?' I might be wrong, but I think it would... I think that energetic or amusing people willl always be able to satirise those in power."
She loves Good News Week because it gives her the opportunity "to talk about things I really care about... albeit in 15-second grabs and if I don't say it in an amusing way it will hit the editing floor".
If all this sounds like a recipe for political correctness, it isn't: guests can do and say anything. In a recent episode, Doug Mulray memorably described Adelaide as "Yass with poofters".
McCrossin believes that "the key to the popularity of Good News Week is that it's naughty". That is why the show's fans range from children to grandparents, she adds. "It's because everybody likes naughty."
Age 44
Star Sign Libra
Height 157 cm
Weight 'I don't know - it's been a considerable length of time since I last weighed myself. It'd have to be about 66kg.'
Partner Melissa Gibson (together three years).
Fun Movies, long walks and swimming.
Pursuits 'I most want to be a good, reliable and loving partner and friend - a great mate. I'm also determined to finish my law degree one day.;
Kids Two stepchildren, aged nine and six.
Time out Seven or eight hours sleep a night.
Dreams 'I failed my maths test in HSC and that has always haunted me. Now, at 44, if I'm stressed I still dream I have a test to do. I wake up relieved that I'll never have to do a maths test again.'
Social life 'Once a fortnight with friends. Countless evenings MC-ing book launches. I spend a huge amount of time in coffee lounges.'
Beauty regime 'I feel proud if I manage to cleanse my face and splash water on it. I don't go for brand names.'
Allergies Hayfever
Vitamins A healthy diet of plenty of fruit and vegetables, but no supplements.
Snacks 'I'll eat a whole cucumber or a whole capsicum as a snack.'
Natural remedies 'My two older brothers are doctors and my father was an orthodontist, and I think I've been influenced by them to stick with orthodox medicine.'
Workouts 'I try to stick to my routine of doing 10-12 laps of an Olympic-sized swimming pool every day or taking my pet kelpie cross Red for a long walk.'
Bad habits Julie doesn't smoke and hasn't had an alcoholic drink in 20 years.
Skin problems 'I grow things on my body - lumps and bumps - which the doctor assures me, is completely normal.'
Health philosophy 'I try to get my blood speeding through my system every day so it will take any bad cholesterol away.'
Best bit of health advice 'Keep moving and keep positive. Being negative clearly affects your wellbeing.'
A: I enjoy cooking and I'm embarrassingly repetitive. I eat extraordinary quantities of tomato pasta with anchovies and black olives at least three times a week.
Q: What type of cake would you cook for [Good News Week colleague] Mikey Robins' birthday?
A: I'd cook the only cake I cook with confidence, which is a rich Madeira cake with brandy chocolate icing. My mother taught me how to make it, She's in her seventies, I'm in my mid-forties, so it's a very old-style cake! Knowing Mikey, I think the brandy would go down well!
Q: What is (Good News Week's host] Paul McDermott's favourite meal?
A: I suspect Mr McDermott would be an esoteric, unusual gourmet, I'd have to seek guidance from his girlfriend, Joanna, and be immensely careful, I probably couldn't get away with tomato pasta and salad!
Q: Do you ever feel like piling on weight so you can compete with Mikey's fat jokes?
A: I think I have responded by emphasising my breasts. On one show, my breasts began to speak - a sort of ventriloquist event took place. I think it was a competitive response to the immense power of Mikey's 'I'm-a-big-fat-man-who-drinks-a-lot-of-beer" jokes and Paul's "I'm-a-sex-god-who's-also-massively-hairy" jokes.
Q: With Good News Week's move to Network Ten, you, Paul, Mikey, Flacco (Paul Livingstone) and The Sandman (Steven Abbott) will also be fronting a new weekly 90-minuto variety program [expected later this year]. You are all known for your quick wits. Do you have any brain-food hints?
A: My brain food is compulsive reading of newspapers and magazines. We all eat with enthusiasm whatever's on offer in the green room, so I think any fuel works with this mob!
Q: What's your favourite indulgence?
A: The way I eat salad is an indulgence. If I have a group of friends to dinner, they prefer me to have one bowl of salad for myself and one for them! I go to my greengrocer every single day and I have a history of developing affectionate relationships with my greengrocers, to the stage, where I'm hugged and kissed by them. What amuses me is that I eat like a rabbit, I don't eat cake and chocolate, but I've always been what I would describe as a curvaceous woman.
Q: When you're at the supermarket, do people point and whisper?
A: People don't point and whisper, they are completely uninhibited - heaps of people hug me! I'm not used to people being so excited and affectionate but I think I have to cop it because I'm so physical and friendly on the show.
Q: What's the worst meal you've ever been served?
A: As a kid, my terror was when Mum and Dad said they were having oxtail. I find the idea of an ox's tail off-putting, but they also put parsnips in the stew, and there's, something about parsnips that makes me gag. We had to eat it, then Mum and Dad would suck the marrow out of the bone. Even now, the hairs on my arms are standing on end!
Q: How do you explain the success of the show?
A: I think people are concerned about things like jobs, interest rates and international instability. It's a relief to laugh at these things but also feel like you're learning. People enjoy the content, the humour, and also the warmth. There's a feeling that at a time of social division, we all get on.
But for rose Julie McCrossin, who had never appeared before in television, being planted between thorns Paul McDermott and opposition team captain Mikey Robins has been something of a baptism of fire.
"For 10 years I was self-employed doing a bit of comedy, making corporate videos and hosting panel discussions and seminars, but mostly working in the welfare and community sector," says McCrossin, who had also worked in Radio National and ABC regional radio.
It all changed for the 44-year-old, however, when Good News Week executive producer Ted Robinson phoned her adter the show had been running for about six months on the ABC.
A four-minute meeting followed, one of only three McCrossin has had with "the boss" in her 3 1/2 years with the show.
"He said: 'I've heard you can talk, that you've got an opinion on everything and can be funny. We'd like you to go on tomorrow night.. oh, and by the way, we're looking for a female team captain'," she says, laughing. "And I've been on every night since."
For 18 months McCrossin kept up all her other work commitments, started a university course and regarded Good News Week as a "bit of a hoot".
"I tried not to take it too seriously, but at the same time walk an alternate line," she says.
"Mikey and Paul have this combative sexualised style. That's not me. I've never been a pub and club girl, either. My style of comedy is more 'satirical-intellectual'.
"My ego had to learn to cope linking with these two extraordinary men. I couldn't attempt to compete with them. I think I have a warmth and womanliness."
Mind you, she did feel she had some preparation for her TV role. Being brought up with two younger sisters and two elder brothers had taught her how to cope with the bully boys.
"Both are medical specialists and international champions in sailing and skiing. Both are also really bloody brains. I grew up competing with them," she says.
"There's something comfortable and natural for me to have two really smart blokes that I know, in a way, I can't match, but I'm still going to God-damned get my word in.
"That was my entire childhood and, in a sense, that's what I am doing now."
McCrossin sees herself as a "different kettle of fish" from other women on the show.
She believes she was hired because she cares about issues and is a genuine media junkie.
"We have all sorts of younger women on the show who can be funny," she says.
"I'm 44. A lot of the girls we have on are under 30, working clubs and having a go."
It's an enjoyable life. It also tends to be hectic, given other commitments, which have to be fitted in.
We are talking on a Tuesday. The previous week McCrossin filmed Good News Week Night Lite and then on the Friday, two Good News Week shows.
Saturday and Sunday were spent studying for a three-hour Monday university exam.
"Doing the shows is a huge adrenalin rush for me, but the next day I look ten years older," she says, relieved that the exam is behind her.
"I'm still limping my way through a part-time law degree. I was in this room with 500 other students, most of them 25 and highly motivated.
"Today I'm up at Parramatta working with a foster care association. Right now I know my body's sick of me.
"I don't know if I'll die, but at least I'll have lived."