ANDREW DENTON

'Andrew Christopher Denton' (born May 4 1960) is an Australian comedian and television presenter, and is the host of the ABC's weekly interview program ''Enough Rope''. He is known as one of Australia's most quick-witted comedians and interviewers.^[1]

Contents

Education

Career highlights

Personal life

References

External links

Education

Andrew Denton went to Blue Mountains Grammar School^[2] in Wentworth Falls where he was known as a talented public speaker and debater. Denton then studied Media and Communications at Charles Sturt University (then Mitchell College of Advanced Education)^[3]. There is a rumour circulating around the Bathurst campus that the words "Towers Power", which were written on one of the roofs of the John Oxley Village dormitory area, was his doing. Denton is reported to have lived in the Towers dormitory buildings.

Career highlights

Andrew Denton worked on a few Australian national radio stations early in his media career, beginning as a writer for popular radio personality Doug Mulray before he began writing and hosting his own show. He also had an early involvement in the Sydney Theatresports movement.

During the 1990s, he worked on and hosted many TV shows, including ''Blah Blah Blah'', ''The Money or the Gun'', ''Live and Sweaty'', and his own comedy talk show, ''Denton''. The first three of these appeared on the ABC, while the last was on the Seven Network. Each week on ''The Money or the Gun'', Andrew had a musical guest play a cover version of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven in styles ranging from grand opera to The B-52's. This later resulted in an album with 22 of the covers and a video with 25 (three highly visual covers, including the Castanet Club's "pirate" themed entry, were not included on the album).
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, musicians from Led Zeppelin, later appeared on ''Denton'' to perform a Rolf Harris song (Rolf having performed a notable version of "Stairway", complete with wobble-board solo). "Denton" saw the beginning of the Musical Challenge segment, where Denton would challenge musical guests to perform a song from a barrel full of unfashionable songs. This segment evolved during Denton's time on Triple M, resulting in three albums with tracks including The Wiggles singing "Long way to the Top", Neil Finn performing "Sexual Healing", Barenaked Ladies performing "When Doves Cry" and Paul Kelly performing "Little Red Corvette". Two volumes were released on CD titled The Andrew Denton Breakfast Show - Musical Challenge.
He also appeared as Malcolm Turnbull in the Belvoir St Theatre production of "A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy", written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, and participated in the early years of the ABC's ''World Series Debating'', often as final speaker.
While presenting ''Denton'', Andrew Denton launched a public subscription scheme to hire a bounty hunter in order to capture Christopher Skase, who was attempting to avoid extradition to Australia at the time. When told that his repeated statements against Skase could expose him to legal action, Denton said, "If he's got a problem, he can come here and sue me." His notoriety earned him a cameo appearance in the Australian film ''Let's Get Skase''.
Denton had an extended stint as a morning radio host for the Triple M network in Sydney, with the assistance of Amanda Keller (who had regularly appeared on ''Denton''). Segments included the aforementioned musical challenges. His time on Triple M also included the infamous "House from Hell" competition, in which various contestants, carefully chosen for their incompatibility, were placed in a house together and involved in various stunts, tricks and tortures. Denton has since said in radio interviews that he regrets being involved in the program, due to the unacceptable level of human manipulation.
In 2003, Denton began hosting ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'', which has become a hit for the ABC.
In 2004 Denton was named by respondents to a survey conducted by Audience Development Australia Pty Ltd as the "most liked and recognisable" personality on Australian television.
Denton's first feature length documentary, ''God On My Side'', documents his visit to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, and was first shown at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2006 with plans to show it as a TV special on ABC's ''Enough Rope''. It was screened in Australian cinemas from 2 November 2006. During interviews related to the film, he revealed he is an agnostic. However, Denton has also insisted he is not anti-Christian in interviews he has done.^[4]
Denton's production company is named Zapruder's Other Films Pty Ltd, a reference to Abraham Zapruder who filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His production company was behind behind the talk show, ''David Tench Tonight'', on Network Ten which used a computer-generated host named David Tench. The show had one season before being cancelled in April 2007.

Personal life

Denton's long-time partner and now wife is prominent television journalist Jennifer Byrne; their son, Connor, was born in 1995. Andrew Denton's father was Kit Denton, author of The Breaker, a novel about Australian soldier and folk hero Breaker Morant.
Andrew Denton is 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall.
He is an avid supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

References

1. A profile of Andrew Denton from The Age [1]
2. The Blue Mountains Grammar School WebSite[2]
3. Detail of Churles Sturt Graduates [3]
4. An Interview with Andrew Denton [4]

External links

★ Andrew Denton at the Internet Movie Database

★ ''Enough Rope'' official website