27 Jul 2018
Aussie comedian Mick Molloy shares his love affair for exploring our sunburnt country.
Home for me is… Melbourne, actually the suburb of Richmond, which is the team I support. That’s ground zero for me, however work takes us pretty much everywhere. If I’m in Melbourne too long, I get a bit of cabin fever and if I’m away too long, I really miss it. I think that’s true of a place you call home.
Right now, you’ll find me… doing a lap around Australia [with the show], through stand-up and other work. And I do our football show on the weekends, which means wherever the game is on on a Saturday night, I end up there. I’m pretty well travelled. You can quiz me, there aren’t many places in Australia I haven’t been.
Growing up… my dad was in the Air Force for 35 years, so we got posted all around Australia. I spent time as a child in every state of Australia… so from Brisbane to Adelaide to Perth to Canberra – we were there.
Credit: Instagram @mickmolly66
Back then… I never had a grand ambition until I got to senior school when I started performing in comedy plays and end of year reviews and stuff like that. I can’t recall ever wanting to be anything until I learned how to be mischievous. [Moving around], you have to make friends constantly and quickly. So, if you need to meet a classroom full of kids for the first time, humour is a good weapon to have in the arsenal.
On family holidays… we would go to Port Macquarie in New South Wales, because a lot of my parents’ relatives were in Queensland and we were in Melbourne, so we kind of split it and we would all meet in Port Macquarie. All my childhood memories are of going to Port Macquarie every Christmas and that was wonderful. I’m sure I’ve over-romanticized it maybe in my mind, but all I remember is going to the beach, playing totem tennis and opening presents.
I saw my very first live band… in a shopping centre. I remember walking through and Hush were playing. Hush had a song called “Bony Moronie.” I remember them playing that in a shopping centre in Port Macquarie and going ‘wow’. That was the first exposure I had had to a band. So, very strong childhood memories of Port Macquarie.
In those days… everyone drove, so we would. I think dad had a white Holden Special and we used to pack about four kids at any given time in the back. Big bench seats, parents in the back…There would be one kid in the front, four kids in the back. We used to sleep under blankets and drive the whole way…it was fun.
My memory of going on holidays…in those days was having a cramming competition in the Holden and driving for days. We never had a caravan, but I remember going on a couple of caravan holidays with dad where we would stay in caravan parks. It wasn’t huge for us, but I do remember doing it. It was fun. It’ll make a comeback, I reckon.
Credit: Instagram @mickmolloy66
I’ve spent a bit of time… up in the Kimberley in WA and we’ve done a bit of camping there. You just drive ‘til you stop and it’s good.
A holiday for me is… I’ve got a little house down the coast from Melbourne, on the Mornington Peninsula, so getting down there and shutting the gate and just not talking to anyone. It’s just like a lock-in. It’s right off the grid. It’s on a national park. I take food for days. And I’ll do maybe one [other] holiday for myself, which might be where I want to go to New York or I want to go to London or do something, so I’ll go for about 10 days.
If I’m not working… because I’m so well-travelled during the year, I head down to my house, I tune out and I’m very, very hard to get. Trust me. It’s so remote, if you don’t know how to get there, you couldn’t find it. If you want to get out and about, there are great wineries, great beaches, great food. There are mineral springs, there are golf courses — there’s everything you want. If you want to, you can do it, but if you don’t, you’re off the grid.
Credit: Instagram @mickmolloy66
In Australia… I love the Kimberley, so I’ve been up there probably a half a dozen times. I’ve got five-year-old boys now, twin boys, and I can’t wait ‘til they’re old enough to take them up there because it will blow their heads off their shoulders. I’ve seen some of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen [up there].
I think a lot of people make the mistake… of going overseas before doing a complete lap of Australia. There’s so much great stuff here. Everyone is so keen to go backpacking or hit the road or go over and discover the world, which is a natural curiosity given how isolated we are, but I reckon it would be great if more people just did a lap…took a year.
I like big pubs… I could go for hours on this topic. There’s one in Melbourne called the Portsea Pub, which is very grand and old school. There’s one at Byron called the Byron Bay Hotel, which is massive. It’s a beautifully big pub. There’s one at Bondi, a local pub, called the Beach Road Hotel. I think Richmond has the best pubs in Melbourne, and per square metre, probably the densest. And I still like old school pubs that have the old man front bar because they’re really quiet and you don’t get bothered as much as you do if you walk into other pubs. There’s a lot to like about the different personalities of old pubs.
My show is… a national drive time show designed to be listened to in cars or businesses while you’re doing something else. Both me and James spent most of our working life trying to entertain the public of Australia and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to look at what’s happening in Australia, digesting it and feeding it back to the community. It’s light, it’s not demanding, it’s irreverent, easy to listen to. I think whether you’re a woman or a man, or you’re 18 or you’re 72, you can probably get the same level of enjoyment out of it.
I still love radio… It’s still the greatest medium in Australia. Because of the size of Australia, I get enjoyment out of going out on 40 or 50 stations. I know it’s going out in Melbourne, but it’s also going out in Gympie and Wyndham...I feel plugged into the nation.
My musical taste is… dubious, to say the least. I actually don’t listen to a lot of music, but I like Bruce Springsteen. I like The Doors and Stones and all that stuff. But if I had to choose just one, I’d probably choose Bruce Springsteen. I think that’s the best driving music that’s been designed to date.
You can tune in to Triple M and catch Mick’s show here
This interview was published in G’DAY Magazine.
