What I’ve Learned: Shaun Micallef on the laws of comedy
The actor, comedian, writer, and former lawyer takes part in Esquire's long-running interview series, What I've Learned
MY MOTHER IS VERY FUNNY. She’ll go to a joke to leaven any situation. From my father I picked up the importance of sometimes being the straight man.
MUM AND DAD ARE BOTH STILL HERE, living in the same house I grew up in. That’s a comfort when I go back to Adelaide: I get to stay in my old room and pretend, at 63, that I’m a child again.
GROWING UP, IT FELT LIKE THERE WAS NOTHING TO DO, so I retreated to inside my head. I listened to a lot of radio – The Goon Show – and drew pictures and wrote jokes.
IN MY LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, I GOT UP IN FRONT OF YEAR 12 and basically stole Peter Cook’s miner’s monologue from the [British stage revue] Beyond the Fringe and adapted it for school. It got huge laughs and then they happened to hold the elections for school captain. I won that post based on doing an impression of Peter Cook.
HUMOUR’S POWER TO DISARM IS SOMETHING I WORKED OUT LATER. It can also make awkward situations less awkward, and you can be subversive without getting into trouble.
STILL, I STUDIED LAW. All my school counsellors had suggested I do something that involved standing up and speaking. At law school, I did a lot of university revues, and even when I was working as a lawyer, I was doing cabaret shows here and there. But I enjoyed the law – getting up in front of a judge, writing my opening addresses, cross-examination, the forensic side of it.
AFTER 10 YEARS OF IT, I DECIDED TO QUIT. I started as a writer in Melbourne for Full Frontal on the smell of an oily rag. I still admire the relatively young man who made that decision. My wife [Leandra] gave me the matches to burn that bridge.
BEFORE WE GOT ENGAGED, I TOLD HER I’M NOT SURE I’M A GOOD BET, because I was thinking of leaving the law for something amorphous. And she said, ‘Doesn’t matter – we’re not together because you’re some great prospect for being the next High Court judge.’ That’s one of the keys to our staying together for so long – a partnership that isn’t based on stereotypes.
LOOKING AT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE US, it would be monstrous if I were living there. But because I’m not, it’s more weird and funny. That’s my way of processing it.
LEANDRA AND I HAVE RAISED THREE SONS. There was no manual. Well, there was Steve Biddulph’s book [Raising Boys] but I got through the first chapter and thought, This is interesting but where’s the fun in it? I want to learn as I go.
YOU CAN EITHER WASTE DOWNTIME OR USE IT TO BE PRESENT WITH YOUR KIDS. We would do things together for no good reason . . . talking about nothing was the fun of it.
I’VE TENDED TO BE DISMISSIVE OF PROJECTS ONCE I’VE FINISHED THEM. Stuff you thought was the best thing in the world, you realise it might have been done better.
I PLAYED THE DULLEST MAN IN THE WORLD IN ‘SEACHANGE’, the perfect suitor for Sigrid Thornton’s Laura. I looked the part – in my younger years I could scrub up – but my character was so dull he was comic. I learnt how difficult it is to act versus doing a sketch. I wasn’t good at doing multiple takes . . . by the fifth take, I was terrible.
WHAT MATTERS? I DON’T THINK CAREER MATTERS. I concluded when the boys were born that they were the point – they were why I was here. I revolve around them, around the family. Maybe I’m way out in space, because the world certainly doesn’t revolve around me. I’m a celestial body streaking across the sky, and maybe if I’m lucky some people will notice me. But eventually, that will be it.
Season two of Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction is on ABC TV and ABC iview.
This story appears in the September 2025 issue of Esquire Australia, on sale now. Find out where to buy the issue here.
Read more of our ‘What I’ve Learned’ series:
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