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| Charles Firth | |
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| Birth name | Charles Henry Danger Burgmann Firth |
| Born | 21 September 1975 Sydney, Australia |
| Medium | Print & television |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Genres | Satirical comedy |
| Notable works and roles | CNNNN (2002–2003), The Chaser's War on Everything (2006–2007), Manic Times |
| Website | www.chaser.com.au |
Charles Henry Danger Burgmann Firth (born 21 September 1975[ citation needed ]) is an Australian comedian, best known as a founding member of The Chaser.
He is the brother of Verity Firth, who was a Minister for the Labor Government of New South Wales. [1] Firth attended Sydney Grammar School, where along with Chaser colleagues Dominic Knight and Chas Licciardello he ran the satirical school magazine The Tiger. [2]
Firth went on to attend the University of Sydney where he completed an Arts degree in political science, edited the Honi Soit student newspaper, and in 1997 broke through a plate glass window during a University Senate meeting to protest the introduction of full fee paying places at the university. While attending, Charles was also the subject of a reality-TV style documentary called Uni, by film-maker Simon Target, centred on the lives of students at the University of Sydney. Fellow Chaser Andrew Hansen was also a subject. It was aired on the ABC in 1996. [3] [4]
Firth's first arrest was notably during the filming of the first film in The Matrix franchise, after he was caught naked, jumping on Keanu Reeves' motorcycle. Reeves was later quoted saying "It was the craziest proclamation of love I've ever received." [5]
On CNNNN , broadcast in 2003 and 2004, he played a role as host of the fictional segment "The Firth Factor", parodying journalistic styles used by the American Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly's prime time show The O'Reilly Factor .[ citation needed ]
During his time in the United States, Firth also researched and wrote his first book, American Hoax . This involved creating a number of fictional stereotypical American characters on both the progressive-left and conservative-right sides of American politics. The characters included liberal ad-man Bertrand Newton, conservative scholar Dr Andrew O'Keefe, conservative economist Edward McGuire, working class bartender Darryl Summers, and female Iraqi-immigrant poet Khorin al-Ghrant. The book explored the efforts of these characters (all played by Firth) to try to interact with real-world political groups and individuals. American Hoax was released in November 2006. [6]
Firth went to Adelaide in July 2007 to present at the Festival of Ideas with fellow Chaser Julian Morrow, where his performance included asking the audience to SMS their questions to him, throwing lollies to the audience, and "defacing" three Wikipedia articles. [7]
Firth worked on a new weekly print magazine and news website, which was launched in mid-August 2007 called The Manic Times. [8] The newspaper has since ceased production and that company is now called "Manic Studios" [9] producing web video for the Australian, and more recently, American Union movements in partnership with The Republic. [10] Firth remains actively involved as a writer, performer and producer.
Firth was the executive producer on a daily news satire program on ABC2 called The Roast [11]
He generated controversy among the Westboro Baptist Church when he began to openly "flirt" with Fred Phelps's son while interviewing him for The Chaser's War on Everything at a Westboro picket. When Phelps junior began to walk away, Firth followed him and continued to openly "flirt" with him, persisting despite being called a "fag-ass pervert" by the rest of the picketers. [12]
In 2008, Firth created a one-hour television special for SBS on the then up-and-coming US election, titled 'Mr. Firth Goes To Washington'. It aired on Tuesday, 4 November at 8:30pm. A blog was also posted for this mockumentary at the SBS website. [13]
Firth co-hosted Episode 50 – "The Chaser Special" – of the Macquarie Radio Network's podcast "Radio Ha Ha" on 10 November 2006. Outtakes from this episode were run in Episode 51 – "The Belated 50th Episode Special" the following week, on 17 November 2006
In 2020, Firth began working with fellow Chasers Dominic Knight and Andrew Hansen on a new podcast project, "The Chaser Report". Initially started as a satire of the weekly COVID news cycle. [14]
In 2023, Firth presented a comedy show entitled Wankernomics with fellow comedian James Schloeffel from satirical website The Shovel. The show was presented at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They described their show as delivering "a 60-minute MBA that you can add to your LinkedIn profile later". [15] [16] [17]
Firth is married to Amanda Tattersall, Founding Director of the Sydney Alliance and co-founder of getup.org.au, a community organiser and author of Power in Coalition a book on building coalitions between unions and community organisations [18] They have two sons.[ citation needed ]
Firth is known to have played in an amateur cricket team, "The Mighty Dicks", with Chris Taylor and Julian Morrow. [19]
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. A recipient of numerous accolades in a career spanning four decades, The New York Times ranked him as the fourth greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
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CNNNN is a Logie Award winning Australian television program, satirising American news channels CNN and Fox News. It was produced and hosted by comedy team The Chaser.
Christopher Thornton Taylor is an Australian comedy writer, performer and broadcaster from Sydney. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC Television shows CNNNN (2002–2003) and The Chaser's War on Everything. He formerly co-hosted the drive radio show Today Today (2004–05) on Triple J with fellow Chaser member Craig Reucassel, and in 2007, he wrote the musical comedy Dead Caesar. Taylor also hosted the mini documentary series 'Australia's Heritage: National Treasures'. In 2010, with his Chaser colleague Andrew Hansen, Taylor made a musical comedy series for Triple J titled The Blow Parade, which became the number one podcast in the country, and won the 2010 ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release. In 2019, Taylor was the creator and co-writer of the drama Upright starring Tim Minchin. The series screened to critical acclaim in both Australia and the UK.
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The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television station ABC1. It has won an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Comedy Series. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts. The series is produced by The Chaser, an Australian satirical group consisting of Chris Taylor, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel, Andrew Hansen, and Chas Licciardello. Fellow Chaser members Dominic Knight and Charles Firth are not part of the regular on-screen cast. However, Knight is a writer, and Firth compiled roving reports for the show from the United States, until he left the group to start a satirical newspaper in mid-2007.
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Julian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser. As a member of The Chaser, he has appeared on several ABC Television programs including CNNNN (2002–03), The Chaser's War on Everything and The Checkout (2013–2018), of which he was also executive producer.
Dominic John Sebastian Knight is an Australian novelist, comedy writer, radio host and media commentator. Best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy Logie Award–winning group The Chaser, he is also an occasional writer, columnist and blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald, and a former host of Evenings on ABC Local Radio across NSW and the ACT. Along with fellow Sydney University students Charles Firth, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel, Knight founded The Chaser newspaper, launched in May 1999.
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Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian, musician and author, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser. As a member of The Chaser, Hansen's television work includes co-writing and starring in ABC Television shows CNNNN (2002–2003), The Chaser Decides, Chaser News Alert (2005), The Chaser's War On Everything, Yes We Canberra! (2010), The Hamster Wheel (2011–12), The Hamster Decides (2013) and The Chaser's Media Circus (2014–2015).
Megan Phelps-Roper is an American political activist who is formerly a member of, and spokesperson for, the Westboro Baptist Church, a Hyper-Calvinist Christian sect, widely regarded as a hate group. Her mother is Shirley Phelps-Roper, and her grandfather is the church's founder, Fred Phelps. She grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in a compound with other members of the church. As a child, she was taught the Westboro Baptist Church doctrine and participated in the church's pickets against homosexuality, the American response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the funerals of soldiers who died in the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. In 2009, she became active on Twitter to preach the church's doctrine. Phelps-Roper began to doubt her beliefs when Twitter users pointed out contradictions in the Westboro Baptist Church's doctrine, and when elders changed the church's decision-making process.
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