Catherine Deveny
Encyclopedia
Catherine Deveny is a comedy
writer and stand-up comedian, and was a regular columnist in The Age
newspaper between 2001 and 2010. She has performed on all Australian TV networks, in Australian comedy venues and on radio.
, Full Frontal
, The Eric Bana Show Live
, All Star Squares, Channel 9's Midday, In Melbourne Tonight and The Super Debate Series, ABC TV's Something Hot Before Bed, Good News Week
, The 7.30 Report
, BackBerner
, Q and A, SBS's Mum's The Word and Network 10's Unreal TV
, Unreal Stuff Ups and Unreal Ads, Rove Live, The Wedge, skitHOUSE
. She is a regular fill-in broadcaster on 774 ABC Melbourne
and has appeared on ABC TV's Q&A and Network Ten's 7pm Projec t.
She has written for the Logie Award
s and the Aria Music Awards and co-wrote the 2005 AFI Awards
with Russell Crowe
and appeared at the Sydney Opera House in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/program_priority/festival_of_dangerous_ideas.aspx where she took on Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell.
Deveny is the author of Rank and Smelly (1997), Babies, Bellies and Blundstones (1999), and Our New Baby (2005). Collections of her column It's Not My Fault They Print Them (2007) and Say When (2008) and "Free To A Good Home" (2009) are published by Black Inc.
In April 2009, she returned to stand-up in Mother of The Year as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
.
Deveny is self-described as "a serial pest and professional pain in the arse". In March 2009 she conducted a one-woman strike with her employer The Age newspaper after they cut her wages in a restructuring of the paper. On 18 March 2009 in a radio interview on ABC 774 with Jon Faine, the editor of The Age newspaper Paul Ramadge
was ambushed by angry supporters wanting Deveny back writing her regular column. She subsequently returned to writing her column for The Age.
Deveny appeared with Daniel Burt in "An Evening Of Insight And Filth" at The Butterfly Club. Due to its popularity the show was extended by six shows.
She appeared at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Melbourne, Australia 12–14 March with Richard Dawkins
, Peter Singer
, Phillip Adams
and PZ Myers and her one-woman show God Is Bullshit, That's The Good News part of the 2010 Melbourne Comedy Festival was a total sell-out.
Catherine Deveny has been named in the Top 100 Most Influential Melburnians by The Age
(Melbourne) Magazine. She is an atheist and a dyslexic.
In May, a similar controversy arose when Deveny posted a number of comments on Twitter during the Logies Awards night about a number of people, including Bindi Irwin
("I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid") and Rove McManus
and wife Tasma Walton
("Rove and Tasma look so cute ... hope she doesn't die, too", in reference to Rove's deceased first wife, Belinda Emmett
). The Age fired Deveny two days later. This caused a "Twitter ban" to be enforced during the 2011 Logies Awards.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
writer and stand-up comedian, and was a regular columnist in The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper between 2001 and 2010. She has performed on all Australian TV networks, in Australian comedy venues and on radio.
Career
Deveny's television work has included Network Seven's Tonight Live with Steve VizardTonight Live With Steve Vizard
Tonight Live with Steve Vizard was a nightly Australian comedy chat show broadcast on Seven Network in Australia. It was a one hour live studio based show broadcast nationally 5 nights a week from February 1990 to November 1993, usually commencing at 10.30 pm every week night...
, Full Frontal
Full Frontal (TV series)
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993. The show first aired on the Seven Network on 13 May 1993, and finished on 18 September 1997....
, The Eric Bana Show Live
The Eric Bana Show Live
The Eric Bana Show Live was an Australian television comedy and talk show hosted by and named after Eric Bana.The show began as four hour-long specials in 1996 called 'Eric'. In 1997, the show settled into a weekly half-hour slot and renamed 'The Eric Bana Show Live'. It featured celebrity guests,...
, All Star Squares, Channel 9's Midday, In Melbourne Tonight and The Super Debate Series, ABC TV's Something Hot Before Bed, Good News Week
Good News Week
Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...
, The 7.30 Report
The 7.30 Report
The 7.30 Report is an Australian nightly television current affairs program, that was shown on ABC1 and ABC News 24 at , Mondays–Thursdays...
, BackBerner
BackBerner
BackBerner was an Australian political satire sketch comedy television series, broadcast on and produced by ABC TV with Crackerjack Productions. The program was hosted by stand up comic Peter Berner and noted Australian character actor Louise Siversen...
, Q and A, SBS's Mum's The Word and Network 10's Unreal TV
Unreal TV
Unreal TV is an Australian television show showcasing advertisements and weird video footage. It was hosted by Tim Ferguson and lasted from 1999 to 2001....
, Unreal Stuff Ups and Unreal Ads, Rove Live, The Wedge, skitHOUSE
SkitHOUSE
skitHOUSE was an Australian sketch comedy television series that ran on Network Ten from 9 February, 2003 to 28 July, 2004. The series was produced by Roving Enterprises. It featured many well-known Australian comedians, including comedy-band Tripod. Reruns can now be seen on The Comedy Channel on...
. She is a regular fill-in broadcaster on 774 ABC Melbourne
774 ABC Melbourne
774 ABC Melbourne is an ABC Local Radio station in Melbourne, Australia. Originally known by its callsign 3LO, it began transmission on 13 October 1924 – Melbourne's second radio station after 3AR.-History:...
and has appeared on ABC TV's Q&A and Network Ten's 7pm Projec t.
She has written for the Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
s and the Aria Music Awards and co-wrote the 2005 AFI Awards
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
with Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
and appeared at the Sydney Opera House in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Festival of Dangerous Ideas is an annual event presented by Sydney Opera House and St James Ethics Centre. In 2009, festival's opening address was given by atheism advocate Christopher Hitchens on the topic of "Religion Poisons Everything", which was countered by Australian Roman Catholic Cardinal...
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/program_priority/festival_of_dangerous_ideas.aspx where she took on Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell.
Deveny is the author of Rank and Smelly (1997), Babies, Bellies and Blundstones (1999), and Our New Baby (2005). Collections of her column It's Not My Fault They Print Them (2007) and Say When (2008) and "Free To A Good Home" (2009) are published by Black Inc.
Schwarz Publishing
Schwartz Publishing is an Australian publishing house based in Melbourne, Australia.Publications include:* Quarterly Essay* Andrew Wilkie, Axis of deceit.-External links:*...
In April 2009, she returned to stand-up in Mother of The Year as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
.
Deveny is self-described as "a serial pest and professional pain in the arse". In March 2009 she conducted a one-woman strike with her employer The Age newspaper after they cut her wages in a restructuring of the paper. On 18 March 2009 in a radio interview on ABC 774 with Jon Faine, the editor of The Age newspaper Paul Ramadge
Paul Ramadge
Paul Ramadge is editor-in-chief of The Age, Melbourne's successful broadsheet newspaper. Since his appointment in 2008 he has overseen a voluntary redundancy program at the request of Fairfax, the paper's owner, and put in place his own editorial management team.-External links:* at The Age...
was ambushed by angry supporters wanting Deveny back writing her regular column. She subsequently returned to writing her column for The Age.
Deveny appeared with Daniel Burt in "An Evening Of Insight And Filth" at The Butterfly Club. Due to its popularity the show was extended by six shows.
She appeared at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
2010 Global Atheist Convention
The 2010 Global Atheist Convention was an international meeting of atheists in Melbourne, Australia, sponsored by the Atheist Foundation of Australia and Atheist Alliance International. It took place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 12 to 14 March 2010...
Melbourne, Australia 12–14 March with Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
, Phillip Adams
Phillip Adams
Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams, AO is an Australian broadcaster, film producer, writer, social commentator, satirist and left-wing pundit. He currently hosts a radio program, Late Night Live, four nights a week on the ABC, and he also writes a weekly column for the News Limited-owned newspaper, The...
and PZ Myers and her one-woman show God Is Bullshit, That's The Good News part of the 2010 Melbourne Comedy Festival was a total sell-out.
Catherine Deveny has been named in the Top 100 Most Influential Melburnians by The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
(Melbourne) Magazine. She is an atheist and a dyslexic.
Twitter comments controversy
In April 2010 Deveny caused controversy by posting comments on Twitter including: "Anzac Day. Men only enlisted to fight for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist." and "An Australian Flag in your front yard tells everyone you're only a couple of Bundy and Cokes away from lynching a wog, slope or Arab."In May, a similar controversy arose when Deveny posted a number of comments on Twitter during the Logies Awards night about a number of people, including Bindi Irwin
Bindi Irwin
Bindi Sue Irwin is the daughter of The Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin. Bindi is a child celebrity who has tried her hand at acting, singing, songwriting, dancing, and rapping...
("I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid") and Rove McManus
Rove McManus
John Henry Michael "Rove" McManus is an Australian comedian, television presenter, producer and media personality. He was the host of the self-titled variety show Rove, and is the owner of the production company Roving Enterprises...
and wife Tasma Walton
Tasma Walton
Tasma Walton is an Australian television and film actress.-Acting career:Walton joined local radio station 6GE and trained as a production assistant and copy writer in her home town...
("Rove and Tasma look so cute ... hope she doesn't die, too", in reference to Rove's deceased first wife, Belinda Emmett
Belinda Emmett
Belinda 'Belle' Jane Emmett was an Australian actress and singer. She was married to television personality Rove McManus and was known for her roles in the TV drama series Home and Away and All Saints.-Early life:...
). The Age fired Deveny two days later. This caused a "Twitter ban" to be enforced during the 2011 Logies Awards.
Books
- Rank and Smelly. South Melbourne: Addison Wesley Longman Australia, 1997.
- Babies, Bellies and Blundstones. Port Melbourne: Lothian, 1999.
- Our New Baby. Port Melbourne: Lothian Children's Books, 2005.
- It's Not My Fault They Print Them. Melbourne: Black Inc Books, 2007.
- Say When. Melbourne: Black Inc Books, 2008.
- Free To A Good Home. Melbourne: Black Inc Books, 2009.