Author(s): Paul Livingston

Song, Stage & Screen

Under the guise of his alter ego Flacco, Paul Livingston basked in the reflected glory of Tim Ferguson, Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler and their anarchic comedy incarnation the Doug Anthony All Stars throughout the heady years of the late 80's and into the early 90's. Flacco and Paul now find themselves wrenched out of comfortable obscure retirement and treading the boards once more with Timothy Ferguson and Paul McDermott, two of the original members of D.A.A.S., on a sell-out reunion tour that the Sydney Morning Herald last year announced as the most important comedy event since 1995. D.A.A.S. fans old and new have flocked to see the shows and DAAS - Their Part in my Downfall documents the horror, the glory, the egos and the strife of life on the road, then and now. At their peak D.A.A.S teetered on greatness, and Paul teetered with them, until that teeter was sabotaged by an illness known primarily by its initials, M.S., Multiple Sclerosis. But M.S. has proved no match for Timothy Ferguson, who refuses to take sitting down lying down...As a fly on the pungent walls of D.A.A.S. dressing rooms across the globe, Paul and Flacco have kept tabs and probed the depths and the shallows of these men. All is revealed in this tell-all account of their rise, disappearance and rebirth, along with interviews with their fans, colleagues and famous peers and admirers, as well as the legion of Australian comedians influenced by early D.A.A.S. As the bad old men of Australian comedy go back to where it all began in 1989, the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, can they recapture the magic? Will Hollywood still be waiting? Will anyone remember them?..'There is...a ruthless tenderness about the Doug Anthony All Stars that makes them more scathingly funny than ever.' Libbi Gorr..'I am laughing at death. Laughing at the loss of my parents. Laughing at all my weaknesses and dumb mistakes. I resolve to phone my sister with whom I've been estranged. I privately forgive my ex. I wipe away tears. It's not fair. Comedy isn't supposed to get to these places. But they are DAAS. More than comics. Less than gods. Hmph. I hate them more than ever. But I will see them again'. Zac Berger