The Chaser

Travels From:
Sydney

Fee Range: C

No target will be spared in The Chaser satirical team's comedy show on ABC TV. The hit list is comprehensive: John Howard, Telstra, The Pope, the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Kim Beazley, Simone Warne and -- most of all -- those annoying people who write feeble hyperbole in TV press kits.

Filmed in front of a studio audience, the Logie Award-winning team of both CNNNN and The Chaser Decides do what they do best -- confronting and lampooning key players from the world of politics, business, religion, media and culture. These signature Chaser ambushes form the core of the new series -- alongside news-of-the-week analysis, comedy sketches, and their uniquely irreverent field experiments such as:

- Can you book a dinner table in the US under the name bin Laden?
- How many times can you let your mobile phone ring during a Russell Crowe gig before he cracks it?
- And how would Virgin Blue's wacky and humorous in-flight announcements go down if you performed them verbatim at an actual comedy club?

The show features segments such as Pursuit Trivia, testing the general knowledge of our politicians during a press conference; reviews of corporate videos; and The Ad Roadtest, where the team recreates scenarios from TV commercials to see if they work in real life.

The Chaser team has come out from behind the desks of CNNNN and The Chaser Decides, to walk tall in the studio and grace the TV comedy genre with a delightfully seditious edge. ABC TV viewers are able to marvel at the menace they effect for half an hour every single week.”

Chaser Executive Producer Julian Morrow says the show is "a satirical anti-variety show, even though I don't really know what that means".

As in previous years, the Chaser team includes writer/performers Andrew Hansen, Chas Licciardello, Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor, Julian Morrow and Dominic Knight. Charles Firth, will be the show's new American Correspondent.

The Chaser's War on Everything is tough, bloody and unforgiving. Don't become the first casualty by not tuning in.



History
The Chaser is a satirical media empire that rivals Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability.

The Chaser is the group behind ABC TV series The Election Chaser (2001), CNNNN (2002) and CNNNN Live (2003) which together have lost a host of Australian and international TV comedy awards. However, their credibility-building run of losses ended in 2004 when CNNNN tied with Kath & Kim to win the Logie for Most Outstanding TV Comedy. In 2005 they won the Logie for Most Outstanding TV Comedy with the hugely popular, The Chaser Decides (ABC).

The Chaser was founded in 1999 as a fortnightly satirical newspaper produced out of a spare bedroom by initial editors Charles Firth, Craig Reucassel, Julian Morrow, Dominic Knight, who were later joined by the far more talented Andrew Hansen, Chas Licciardello and Chris Taylor. Since those humble beginnings, the Chaser team has lost its humility and has produced Classicâ„¢ comedy in all media, including print, online, radio, television and Christmas crackers.

The Chaser team also produced the official Sydney Olympics parody site www.silly2000.com and have brazenly recycled material in a series of books: The Little Read Book (2000), Bradman: The Cremated Years (2001), The War on Error (2002) and most recently Embedded with The Chaser (2003). The War on Error received the Outstanding Humorous Book prize at the inaugural Australian Comedy Awards in November 2003.

From 2001-2003, The Chaser had weekly radio programs on Triple M Sydney and the Austereo network. They also produced the weekly Chaser Report for Mike Carlton's program on 2UE (2002) and are regular attention seekers on a host of other radio and television programs.

Corporate
Popular in the corporate arena, The Chaser Team offer a range of speaking and entertainment options tailored to client's needs. As hosts and presenters, they are beautifully irrelevant with just the right amount of professionalism. As after dinner and keynote speakers, they can present custom-written satirical songs and parodies of corporate presentations including PowerPoint and trivia quizzes.