FebFast happens every year and basically involves giving up alcohol for a month.
FebFast happens every year and basically involves giving up alcohol for a month. Mick Molloy was amongst those to participate this year. He’s just come out the other side of it and is at home, contemplating where he should go to have his first beer for the month. “I’m kind of at a loose end; I don’t know how to behave. I actually got through the whole month, alcohol-free. There was a lot of smart money that said I couldn’t do it but yes, it was an enlightening experience,” he says with a laugh.
Molloy, who started doing breakfast radio again around the time he went dry, says he learnt a lot about himself and other people. He learnt that “I’m not quite as funny after 1am as I thought I was. Girls aren’t quite as pretty after 1am as I thought they were. I’m probably more boring than I previously understood. So it was a very confronting experience but I’m glad I did it,” he says. It’s been a while since he’s gone that long without a drink. “I think it was the first time I’d done it since 1982, which was when I was in Year 10 so I was coming from a long way back in the field.”
The result of all this extra time on his hands (“I almost had to enter a police witness protection scheme on weekends so my friends couldn’t find me” he says of how he managed to pull it off) has been he’s been able to write new material for his new show, which, like previous years, will be a triple-hander with fellow stand-ups Glenn Robbins and Jeff Stilson.
These days Molloy, whose CV includes the long-running and highly rating radio show Martin/Molloy, television sketch comedy The Late Show, and feature film Crackerjack and Before The Game, continues to split his time between TV, radio, live and writing. Logie-nominated Glenn Robbins has been acting and writing in comedy for well over 20 years, with notable credits including The Comedy Company, Fast Forward, The Panel, Kath And Kim and most recently Out Of The Question. With 14 Emmy Award nominations under his belt, American Jeff Stilson splits his time between the two hemispheres, regularly appearing on shows such as Letterman, Conan and JayLeno, when not gigging in Australia or working in TV here.
The three of them have different but complementary styles “and I think that’s why the show works. Between us we have very different takes so we can cover the same subject matter and not cross-pollinate,” Molloy says of what they’ll be talking about. Molloy, who says he likes reacting to what’s going on in the world each week, says he’ll be doing a lot of topical material “because it’s just in my DNA”. But FebFast has also uncovered another area to explore. “There are some stories I want to tell, that I’ve been plucking up the courage to see if the audience is ready for them or not,” he reveals. “I had this idea, I mean this is the problem that comes from being sober for 30 days, but I got to thinking that a lot of the things I’m most ashamed about in my life are alcohol-related, so I just thought,” he starts to chuckle as he talks. “I’ve written down quite a few things which I’m not very proud of but tend to be funny if you weren’t involved – and I’m trying to work out if they’re amusing or just terrifying or creepy. Jury’s out,” he says with another big, unmistakable Molloy laugh.
Robbins, Stilson & Molloy perform at Melbourne Town Hall’s Lower Town Hall from Paril 19 – April 24. It’s at 7pm Tuesday – Saturday and 6pm on Sundays. Tickets are $25 – $34 and available through Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door.
