by Dov Kornits
“It was a fluke, really,” Paul Fenech reflects about the birth of the Fat Pizza franchise; and it is a franchise, stooge. “Nothing in my career has been planned and I didn’t really have any kind of like, ‘okay, in five years I’m going to be doing this’. It was always just opportunities came and I really tried to run with them.
“The Tropfest films that won were all Pizza related, the same character that I play, same sort of slapstick kind of thing,” he says of 1995’s Pizza Man, which won third place. Working his way up from cleaner at ABC TV, Fenech ultimately climbed the ladder, eventually directing TV at both Auntie and SBS.
“I was working at SBS and South Park had done really well, so they wanted an Australian South Park. I said, ‘have a look at these short movies, they’re irreverent, South Park is similar in some ways to what I do’. And they liked it, and they commissioned a pilot and then the guy who had to approve it didn’t do anything for two years. And then he died suddenly, which I had nothing to do with… And then his replacement came in and within two months he had green lit Fat Pizza,” Fenech says of the TV show.
“So, you can’t say I planned this career or anything. I’ve had those lucky moments, but what I am good at, is if those moments come, I try and maximise them. And I don’t have anxiety. Everyone’s got anxiety these days… I run with the ball when I see the opportunity.”
Have you watched Fat Pizza the film lately, and do you think that it’s dated at all?
“I usually watch it about once a year for one reason or another. I always love watching it. I giggle like a silly kid, because I wrote it, it’s all my humour, it came out of my 14-year-old brain.
“Has it dated… I mean look, a lot of the stuff’s still there, police interaction with youth around the country; I think the car culture’s changed a lot. You don’t find as many people hotting up cars, it seems to have gone out of fashion with kids. I think they’re too lazy to put the work in now, but horny, young ethnic guys working in fast food, it’s certainly still there. One thing I’m proud of, they call it diversity now, but our shows have always had a good range of different cultures and subcultures that I think reflect real elements of Australia.”
How do you think today’s audience would react to the trans representation in the film?
“I’d forgotten about that! I dunno, they’re still in there, they’re included. Hello. See, we were including the trans community back then! I mean all our interpretations of everyone are always stereotypes and silly characters. So, if they get offended, I mean, go and take your meds and talk to a therapist.
“Everything’s sensitive. There’s nothing that’s not sensitive. You can’t say anything.
“The petals can get to sleep, mate. I mean really, I think maybe I’ll get cancelled or maybe I’m sort of on the last legs because of the way all this stuff’s changing, but I really don’t see it as a majority kind of headspace. It really is a vocal minority who are dictating.
“The majority of people are working, too busy to sit around on the internet trolling and making big claims and accusations. It’s all these weirdos who are sitting at home going, ‘oh, that offended me’, speak to their other mate, the other trolls, the troll community. ‘Oh, come on, let’s get two quotes in the Daily Mail and make it a headline’.”
Were you getting any pushback back then?
“In the early days, we got a little bit of hate, but not much. I think people saw it as funny first and it’s always been successful. All the comedies I’ve done except for a couple of things, haven’t fallen flat. They’ve all done well. I travel around the country doing a lot of live stand-up pretty much half the year. I meet a lot of people and I get to see what Aussies are really thinking, feeling, speaking about, and I try to keep my humour close to where everyone’s collective culture brain is at. And there’s a big vocal kind of woke movement in Sydney and Melbourne, but they don’t reflect the majority of the country, that’s for sure.
“I think Aussies by and large, still love irreverent humour. That’s how Australian humour has been.
“I hadn’t heard this, but Rebel Wilson actually called us culturally insensitive or something… I’d never heard this quote, another journalist told me about it. But that really gave me the shits. I thought we gave her a career and trained her up. Fat Pizza the movie is her debut piece of media. She hadn’t done anything at all. I think it’s really quite disappointing. And there’s probably a whole bunch of other words I can say that start with capital F or capital C, but I’ll just leave it at that.
“I don’t think we’re culturally insensitive. I think we’re the most culturally sensitive because we actually use people from the cultures to create the comedy, and there’s an open space for them to bring the nuances that they grew up with into the comedy. Probably one of the only comedians or directors who lets that happen. It’s not always strictly scripted. If people are bringing something funny that comes from their corner, I always let it go. So, I think we are big and loud, but I think insensitive is a low punch for me. I always feel like we’ve been more sensitive and more inclusive for a longer period of time than any other media entity since we started. I mean, if there’s another more inclusive group you show me.”
How do you find your ensemble?
“I feel like there’s a formula in the industry for making anything. And in casting, they go to the same four casting directors and usually those people have agendas and all the rest it. But generally, I do an open casting. In those days, we used to put ads in the newspapers and just say, ‘if you’re this, this, this and this, turn up’. We’d see anyone. And now we do the same sort of thing over the internet with our social media accounts. But I think that’s the old Hollywood way. If they wanted to find someone fresh, they would just have an old open casting. I’ll meet anyone and you get the gems that just pop up that you would never expect. They’re just people who walk in the door and you just know that they’re perfect for comedy for different reasons.
Did fame ever go to any of your cast’s heads?
“I did see it happen to a lot of people, cast members in the show. And look, it does change you, that sort of success. It changes how you are a bit. But I’ve always been a crew person first and a performer second. I never liked prima donnas when I was a crew person and I saw clashes with all sorts of people. Russell Crowe actually was an extra on this show called Living with the Law at the ABC. And in a bizarre situation, he was just an extra really, there was some recreation of a fight or something. And he had an argument with the makeup guy – who was a hunchback, to make it all more bizarre – about his skin tone. I used to see how crew would react. I’ve never liked prima donnas on set. We’re all there, even crew people. I don’t work with big personalities. My crews are very generally pretty nice people, quiet people. We just want to get things done and have a laugh.
“You do need ego to be a creative person. There’s no doubt about it, but you don’t have to be, you’re no better than any other human being because we’re all just human beings.”
Can you discuss your approach to some of the stunt casting, such as Merv Hughes as Ivan Milat, or Tim Ferguson as a David Copperfield style magician?
“I think in the early Fat Pizza days, I realised that if we wanted to get one trick to use to get a greater audience, we would have lots of cameos from people who’d been really well known and maybe who weren’t doing so good. So, in one way, for me it was a tribute to the people I saw growing up on TV and I liked very much. And then once that became a real feature of the show, then it was just like, ‘well, who wants to be in it?’ We just ask. I didn’t think Merv Hughes would want to do it, but then he did, and I thought he kind of looks like Ivan Milat. So, he’s perfect to play a serial killer and he loved it. I think that’s been one of the fun things for a lot of people who do cameos as we let them do a big silly character that they don’t normally get to do. They get to have a bit of fun and play something different.
“Tim Ferguson was in our most recent Fat Pizzas. We did them a couple of years ago now for Seven Plus and Seven Mate, and it’s great working with him. I’ve always loved him. Very talented guy, very funny guy. One of those classic underrated comedians in Australia. I love the cameos. The trouble now is that there’s no stars in TV anymore, because the way Reality’s changed TV. There’s very few, they’re all too precious to do anything out of the box. So, these days it’s very difficult to get cameos.”
Did you ever try to make it in the US?
“I did have the opportunity when I won one of the Tropfests, the prize was to go to Hollywood and meet all these people and all of that. And I can’t remember what I took over there, but I did have one agent who wanted me to sign some ridiculous seven year contract where they got something like 60% of all my earnings no matter where I made it. And at the time, my kids were babies and I looked at LA and there’s a guy over there with a sign saying, ‘help, I have AIDS, I’m going to die. Give me money’ and hear gunshots over here. And then people were saying, the career path is if you want to work in Hollywood, you’ve got to kiss arses for five years and hang around and then get your Green Card and you can have that career. But because my kids were little, and I liked Australia to live in more… I didn’t want to see my kids grow up and end up being idiot Americans educated on drugs being shot at by the neighbour…
“I did have the opportunity, but it just wasn’t my thing. I’ve been happier in Australia. Could I have used the money? Yes. Would it have been nice to work with Hollywood people? Yes. But look, I think I’ve been happy here and I’ve got it good. When I travel around the country, everyone gives me good vibes and I meet people every day.”
Does the comedy travel at all to any other territories?
“Funnily enough, Fat Pizza was translated into a lot of other languages. Not that Roadshow [who released the first movie] ever told me or gave me any royalties from it, but we caught them out in Germany. It became a thing, believe it or not, there were Germans who used to bail me up. Fat Pizza travelled a lot, but we didn’t really get much feedback. It was just before the social media stuff is as big as it’s now. We would’ve learned a lot more when we were more visible. But 20 years ago, there wasn’t that visibility.
“I’ve just been traveling around the world. I’ve been bailed up in Italy, I’ve been bailed up in Egypt, been bailed up in Japan by locals, which is always pretty trippy. Japan would come up and look, ‘ah, fuck pizza’. It did travel, but we just didn’t know about it really.
“Look, I’m probably the world’s worst producer. I mean, I have to produce all my stuff and I only do it not because I want to do it, it’s just to keep the personal control. I’ve worked with other producers and got fucked around a lot and came off second best and I didn’t like it. But I’m not the sort of producer who wants to exploit everything and squeeze every dollar and all that sort of stuff. Really, I’m a creative person first. And I produce by necessity, not because I really want to do it. I make this one and then I’m worried about the next one and the next one and the next one and all that exploitation sort of stuff… If somebody comes along and does it for me, that’s good. I’m not actually really good at promotion or exploitation of my stuff. I’m good at making it and that’s about it. So, you’ve got to know your strengths and your weaknesses.
“I haven’t been out of production for years, I’ve been working in TV for about 34 years or something like that. And since I started making these shows, I haven’t been out of production for more than a year. So, we did Pizza for about seven series. We did Housos for two series, Swift and Shift Couriers for about two series, a bunch of other stuff. I’ve made about four or five movies in that time and made some Pizza spinoffs in the last five years.
“Bogan Hunters was a big hit for seven and Housos was a big hit. There’s been sort of slightly quieter times in terms of the big breakout stuff/
“I’m just happy to be in there and I’ve got a lot of people who love me and support me for all these. So, without all those people watching, I’d probably be an Uber driver. So, thank you.”
Fat Pizza 20th Anniversary Screenings are taking place on Friday 3 November at the Chauvel in Sydney and Saturday 4 November at The Astor in Melbourne. Paul Fenech new show Darradong Local Council debuts on 7mate and 7plus at 9:30pm on 26 October 2023
