The Saturday Quiz

I love having Laurence on the show. he's done it a bunch of times before, but never solo. Will he prove that every time before this one he's been the dunce? Or will he somehow jag a whole bunch of questions that sit in his sweet spot? You'll have to listen to find out. This podcast is made on the land belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respect to their elders past a...

Duncan Fellows is a dear old friend who I have known since we were both teenagers. His effortless charm has endeared him to audiences of tv shows like Deadloch and The Messenger and will no doubt do so again in the soon to be released tv series He Had it Coming and Reckless . He was even married to my partner in the excellent tv series The Letdown. Next week sees the Melbourne International Film F...

Lorin Clarke and Andrew Farrell are both the directors of documentaries about iconic Australian voices. One tinged with a kiwi accent, the other still bearing the slight Scottish brogue of his childhood.  Lorin's film “But Also John Clarke” is about her father, the much loved satirist John Clarke, and Andrew's is about the Australian singer and icon “Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Man” Find tick...

I've been bugging Mark to come back and do the quiz for ages. He was the Australian Celebrity Mastermind champion! He is also the presenter of Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream ? which is a documentary about the housing crisis which you can - and should - watch on Binge right after you listen to this episode. This podcast is made on the land belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin natio...

Ash Flanders is an award winning actor and writer currently starring alongside Sigrid Thornton and Yael Stone in Melbourne Theatre Co's production of Mother Play. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Paula Vogel, Mother Play tells the intimate story of a mother and her two children over the course of several decades of the late 20th century as they push and pull apart, driven by love and compa...

Bit of a different one - just John talking to himself for a while. This podcast is made on the land belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and acknowledge their traditions of sharing knowledge and stories for millennia on this land. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-saturday-quiz . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Most performers I know have all had one of those anxiety filled nightmares of finding yourself on stage on opening night, with no idea what the play is about, who your character is, or what your lines are. So it is a special kind of masochist who would willingly put themselves in exactly that situation. Nadine Garner and Fayssal Bazzi are two such masochists. They are about to take on Iranian writ...

A charismatic, egocentric strongman politician with contempt for the population he leads, rides roughshod over the conventions of democracy to drive through decisions he makes, having little regard for opinions other than his own. Sound familiar? If it does, then I am slightly surprised, since this play has not been performed in Australia for thirty years! The Bell Shakespeare production of Coriol...

My eldest sister Louise is one of the most avid listeners to this podcast. So when I told her it was likely I wasn't going to be able to put out an episode for the second week in a row, her disappointment was such that I could convince her to step in to make it happen. On this episode she is joined by her husband Martin and they both do very well at the quiz. Hope you enjoy the listen. This podcas...

As an actor who also produces and hosts a quiz-based podcast, it's safe to assume that a piece of theatre about a pivotal historical figure who happens to hold the very quiz-friendly distinction of being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields - is going to be right up my alley. So when my f...

Zöe Coombs Marr is no stranger to this podcast - possibly making the most appearances on the quiz. Her show "Wrap It Up with Zöe Coombs Marr" kicks off next week as part of Melbourne’s Rising Festival. It is described as a live, late night taping of your favourite variety tv show. A place where there’s only ever five minutes of taping to go, and a lot to get through. If you’ve ever seen any of Zöe...

It's not often you get two Laurences in one show. But that's what the Australian production of The Lord of the Rings Musical has. And so does this episode of the quiz! This podcast is made on the land belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and acknowledge their traditions of sharing knowledge and stories for millennia on this lan...

If you like this podcast - and I'm assuming you do, because why else would you be here - then there is a very strong chance that you will love the ABC tv program "Claire Hooper's House of Games" This is not a paid endorsement of the show, I just think it's a delightful thing to watch every weeknight at 6.30 - or at any time on ABC iView! The eponymous host Claire Hooper is a guest on this episode...

Nicole da Silva and Gareth Davies are both currently performing in a double bill of plays by the Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter. “The Lover” and “The Dumb Waiter” are on at the Ensemble theatre in Kirribilli in Sydney right now, playing Tuesday to Sunday until the 7th of June. Gareth has been a guest on the quiz several times before, but this is Nicole's first time. Will Gareth's experience trump Ni...

Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta are a married couple who write novels together! Their first novel “The View Was Exhausting” is a rom-com about an A-List Hollywood actress and a millionaire’s son using their fabricated romance to control the narrative, and was named by Vogue magazine as a “perfect summer read”. Their new book is an entirely different beast - “Feast While You Can” is a dark...

Both Toby Schmitz and Luke Arnold are actors who have recently turned their storytelling talents into actual stories in actual books! Toby's debut novel "The Empress Murders" is described as both a razor-sharp, mind-bendingly clever whodunnit and an excoriating look at the excesses of the British Empire, just as the sun is beginning to set on it. And Luke is releasing "Whisper in the Wind" his fou...

Rosie and Nicola Dempsey are otherwise known as the comedy music double act Flo and Joan. The two previous times they’ve been on this show, Nicola’s pieces of trivia were both about Andrew Lloyd Webber - and there was even a question related to Lloyd Webber in last year’s episode - at the time, the depth of their knowledge about the man was somewhat surprising. But now we understand why, since the...

It’s become something of an Easter tradition to have Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis on the show the week before Good Friday to promote the very special Rockwiz event The Really Really Good Friday Spectacular at the magnificent Hamer Hall. Quiz aficionados themselves, they get surprisingly stuck on a few of the questions this time around. But it's always a joy when Brian and Julia are on the show...

George Fouracres and Pierre Novellie met while studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge, so it's a fair expectation that they might do well at quizzes. They're both annoyingly multi-talented clever people, performing work ranging from stand-up to musicals, Pierre has a very successful podcast of his own - BudPod with Phil Wang, he's the author of the book Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things?...

David Correos has been on this podcast before with Demi Lardner, but this time I needed a slightly less chaotic partner for him. Harry Jun is another very funny comedian, but they come up against a very tricky set of questions (as always, written by the unparalleled Cindy MacDonald) and it takes all my powers of clue-giving to get them to the correct answers. They both have shows at the Melbourne...

This episode was recorded live at the Margarita Bar inside Gluttony at the Adelaide Fringe! Not in front of a live studio audience or anything, but perhaps it should've been? For their third time on the quiz, comedians Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh got a free margarita and the chance to talk about all their upcoming shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They each have a solo s...

It's quite apt that this episode has come hot on the heels of the last episode. If Chris Ryan and Luke Heggie are veterans of standup showing all the signs of world-weariness in their comedy, the guests on this episode are the polar opposites. Alex Lowes and Kushi Venkatesh are fresh faced babes at the very start of their careers in comedy. Although they've both already achieved a great deal. With...

Old hands at appearing on this podcast - Chris Ryan and Luke Heggie - come on around this time every year. They are both touring brand new hours of standup right now and are experts at extracting laughs from their audiences. Check their websites to see when they're in a city near you and go see them. You won't regret it. https://chrisryancomedy.com/ https://www.lukeheggie.com/ This podcast is made...

I'm sorry I don't have a new episode for you! While I try to find a moment to record the new one, please enjoy this re-release of one of my favourite episodes from 2022. And if you are in Adelaide, come and see The Platypus at the Adelaide Fringe. It's a fantastic play and I'm very proud of it. Get your tickets to The Platypus here: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/the-platypus-by-francis-g...

For the next few months, Alexei Toliopoulos and Zachary Ruane will be touring their show Refused Classification to comedy festivals all around the country. The part comedy, part documentary, part verbatim theatre piece tells the true story of beloved film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton taking on the Australian government when the film Ken Park was sensationally banned in the early 20...