The Chaser Report - How To Do A Dutton Impersonation | Dan Ilic

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Dom Knight is joined by comedian, producer, and podcast-award hoarder Dan Ilic. Dan and Dom catch up, as Dan shares his keen insight from both a satirist's and activist's perspective on a range of political issues around the world. What does Dan think of Dutton's nuclear power plans, Joe Biden, and the UK election? Listen and find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and without Charles. We've upgraded today. We have a far more successful comedy podcaster on the show today. We have Dan Illich of the Multi-Australian Comedy Award winning and Chaser Report defeating A rational fear. Dan, so nice to have you back.

Look, it's always good to be on a show that is very similar to ours but has less trophies to show for it. It really is so much so that this year, Irrational Fear, you know what, we're going to take a break from the Australian podcast awards. We're not going to enter. We thought, you know, we've got to give our friends at the Chaser a leg up, give them the space to win an award themselves.

Also, we haven't really published much this year as well, so we don't have anything to choose from. Well, that's great. Well, I can put this episode in, and they'll think it's a rational fear, and we might have a chance. Well, you know, one of the things that I think really gets us over the line is we do a lot of sketches and stuff.

And so what I've worked out is how to make a great entry for the Australian podcast awards is to do a best-of show around New Year's where I put all those sketches together and then that's counted as a separate episode and then what you can do is you can put the best of a 15 minutes of the best of into the podcast awards

and they will count that as one episode and it's like voila you've got some of the best gear in 15-minute chunks in that episode. You've just shared the formula. Okay, we're Slavish Link copying that note to Charles and Lockham. We're making sketches now and to

the end of year. Now, look, lots to talk about including your latest sketch. Let's get into it in just a moment. You've been busy, though. I tell you what, talking about sketches, the mastermind sketch that you put together recently. What a massive production that is. Let's have a little listen to your take on Mastermind with Peter Dutton in the hot seat. Welcome back to political mastermind. The next Mastermind vying for the top prize is... Um, Peter. As your specialty topic, Peter, you've chosen Australia's energy rollout. Let's see how that goes for you.

And all of us. What type of energy is illegal in Australia? Nuclear energy. Correct. Apart from being the most expensive option, nuclear is also what? Unpopular? Unpopular, slow and dangerous. Good title for the autobiography.

According to you, Peter Dutton, the cost of nuclear would be what? A big bill. Big Bill? A big bill is correct. Australians love big things. The big Marino, a big pineapple, and my big nuclear bill. There you go. So what a job. Someone's got to make fun of not only Peter Dutton, but our friend Mark Fennell, as well. Well, you know, a lot of people ask me, are you worried about AI taking your jobs? And I say, no, I'm worried about Mark Fennell taking my jobs. Yes, absolutely. So that's what I'm worried about. And so we thought Lewis took the writing task. very seriously, and we actually pitched, believe it or not, Osher Gunsberg initially

to be the host of that. But Osher actually has mixed feelings about nuclear, as it turns out. Oh, okay. Yeah, so we went with Lewis Hobber and who does an incredible job and is very handsome in the role and probably should host his own quiz show himself. He is very handsome. If you're looking for talent, don't look no further than Lewis Hobba. The man is so versatile.

But no, look, Peter Dutton impersonation is, I mean, it's interesting art, isn't it, saying to someone, I really think you've got a good Dutton in you. We've been discussing that this week with Chris Taylor, actually. We had an episode about why bald leaders tend to lose elections. Well, clearly it didn't work for the New Zealand Prime Minister, who is bald, and he won an election. So, you know, that's good to see. That's true.

There's always an exception. But no, I mean, I must say, as someone who's a little portly and that doesn't have much here myself, I'm just waiting until someone rings me and goes, have you tried to play Dutton. I think you've got a good way, I'm not sure I want to do it. I mean, the voice is a big part of it. Do you want to give it a go? Well, I interviewed, I did a Dutton before for sketches on Triple M,

and I'd have to listen to his voice to try and pull it off more accurately, but... Is it that vaguely in the ballpark? I can't really recall. I think with a little bit of digital help, maybe pitching you down a couple of octaves, you could really get that. Oh, okay. It's more like that. Is it all? Okay. That's it. That's good. Small modular nuclear reactor. You're saying you're going to slam my head against a Queensland cop car door, and then I think you're in.

Do you want to be in the phone book? I've got one right here. Yeah, that's good, that's it. Copper D.K. It's right. So look, I want to have you on as well, not just to catch up, but also it's a really interesting moment. As someone who's campaigned for a long time, and you're far more vocal in politics than we are in the chain, so we tend to try and make gentle fun of everybody. But you really advocate, of course, you've worked so hard on climate, particularly, but other things as well. This is, in many ways, the biggest moment for the left in years, isn't it?

I mean, we've got Anthony Albanesey, to the extent that you're happy with him, which you'll find out in Australia. We've just got Rishi Sunak on the way out and Kier Stama, Sir Kier Stama in Britain. Surprisingly enough, Marine Le Pen of the national rally in France, did not win the parliamentary election there. In fact, her party came, I think it's third or fourth in the final washup,

and a coalition of fairly hard leftists actually managed to win, surprising just about everybody. Yeah, it is really. really interesting and it's it just goes to show you can't take like trends like right wing nationalism for granted like you can't say that these are these are trends that are happening around the globe and the whole world is going to be uh full of Nazis from this point onwards we just there are a few places italy and so on in Hungary and all that and Donald Trump absolutely yeah I mean Victor Orban is a really good example of his regime like coming to the

for. And, you know, Germany has its undercurrents as well. And it's kind of interesting to see just what can happen when people work together to get rid of someone they don't like. And I hasten to kind of say that this can happen everywhere, because the left side of politics aren't usually good at singing from the same songbook. They tend to, there's a phrase that goes around politics, which is the left eat itself, which is kind of interesting because, you know, there's always so much infighting on the left. Even the vegans eat themselves. Yeah.

And I think Jeremy Corbyn put out a great tweet yesterday. He said, France's extraordinary election results provide an urgent and valuable lesson. Don't concede ground to those who sow division and fear. Build a bold left movement that offers an alternative of inclusion and hope. That's how you defeat the far right. And I don't know if we'll ever see that in Australia,

but it's really nice set of words from Jeremy Corby. Jeremy Corbyn only makes sense as independent. I don't know if he would ever make sense. as the Labour leader. Well, he didn't, when he was Labor leader, but it is one of the fascinating details we didn't talk about much in our, when Chris was on, we really talked about

the history of the Tories and some of the most extraordinary moments during their 14 years in power. But it is interesting looking at the UK election, the way that the system has impacted things. And you had many seats really where, I think Ian Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, actually he kept his seat because the vote was split between two left candidates,

one of whom was Labor and the other of whom felt that Labor's Gaza policy was wrong. And we saw that a lot. We saw a lot of split votes in notionally left seats where you had, you know, to sort of do more for Gaza cause splitting the vote. But then by the same token on the right, and this hasn't been really discussed enough for all that Kirstama got a landslide, something like 34% of the primary vote Labor got and had reform not come through and really, or even though they had only five MPs, they split the vote in so many seats. with the Tories, this is a big part of the system. So I don't even know, I mean, if you were Kiyosama,

would you even be feeling massive indication at this point? Or is right-wing populism really just a question of getting the voting tickets organized? It probably is, yeah. I reckon there's room there for almost like what we have in Australia, where the nationals and the liberals kind of joined together as a coalition. But in the UK, you'd probably have reform in the Tory party eventually kind of forming a coalition because their vote has been so severely split. That schism towards Nigel Farage's far right,

so evident and so much of the vote went to them and that is why they lost in so many seats because tons of people voted for reform meaning that the Tories weren't going to win those seats and those seats just by the fact there was an extra right-wing party in the mix went to Labor so the only reason I can the only thing I can see in the Tory's future is a coalition with someone with the unsavory elements of British politics the far right so you do a good Farage impression oh I don't know whether you've worked on but I I can, he's got such a, I mean, he's got such an amazing voice. Like, he's got a right-wing shock jock's voice.

He does, yeah. I haven't worked on a Farage impression. Perhaps I should now. But we'd actually had him on Tonightly, and it was a, in the behind scenes of tonight. The real guy. The real guy, yeah, Nina O'Yama interviewed him on Tonightly. And just the, there was a lot of talk, a lot of talk, Dom, of Tonightly, platforming Nigel Farage.

Tonightly, a show that no one watched on the ABC. platforming, one of the most garish politicians of an era. And we had to fight back. I had to kind of push back that we should have Nigel Farage on so Nina Ayama could make jokes to his face. And the sad thing is, Nigel Farage is really, and same with Boris Johnson, is they're both really funny people. And so they can roll with the punches, they can turn a joke and throw it back in your face pretty quickly. So it was a very enjoyable experience on screen, not so enjoyable experience behind the same. scenes.

I'm going to check that one out. I'm sure. I'm sure Jared Henderson loved it. That would have been great for balance. You know, finally, finally. Tonight, Lena and Nigel have both become so, such big stars since that encounter. I think they should probably have a reunion. That's right.

A re-interview, a rematch would be amazing. Come back together. Yeah, Nina's had a brilliant. Well, she's a former co-host of this podcast, as are you. If you go back in the archives, you find all these very successful people who work briefly with us. I want to ask you about Australian politics, though, because I, I know you watch very closely in the mastermind sketch, of course, making fun of Peter Dutton and nuclear.

Do you find this odd? This is a really bizarre position we're in where we've got an opposition that have actually advocated a policy, and we've mentioned, I mean, Charles and I've discussed this quite a bit. In fact, they've actually come out with a pretty radical idea for Labor to run against. Do you think it's absolute madness? I mean, you're obviously concerned enough to write a sketch about the nuclear power push. Yeah, look, and it is concerning because like, We don't have enough time to be distracted by this issue, right?

So the reason why renewables is, there is such a huge push for renewables, going back to first principles, is that we need to, for the sake of the planet, we need to reduce our carbon emissions as quickly as possible. And the easiest and cheapest way to do that is by putting in renewables and firm storage with batteries. And that is the plan that's in, that's the plan that's being rolled out, and that is the plan that is happening throughout states in all of Australia. And what Peter Dutton's argument is, is that no, the best way to do it is with a nuclear reactor.

But the problem is nuclear reactor is going to take too long to build. But the benefit of that is, if you look deeply, is because it's going to take so long to build and so long to develop, is that it actually extends the lead time for sunseting coal and sunset in gas, which is the two other drivers of electricity in Australia. But the problem with coal and gas, I don't know if you remember, is greenhouse gas emissions. And they actually kill the planet. That is the issue. That is the primary first principles as to why we are racing ahead with renewables in this country.

And in a couple of years time, renewables are going to make up 50% of the grid. Currently at 35. It's only going to be like four or five years' time. It'll be 50% and they could make up 98% of the grid in like 10 years' time. And then the job is kind of solved because you've got renewables and batteries and you've got ways to move that electricity around. That is power lines and updating the grid and smart grids and stuff like that. So the problem is solved. And so what this other thing is is purely a distraction play.

It is what Crosby Texter, the great political spin doctors of our time would call, throwing the dead cat on the table, throwing something so crazy, so stupid on the table, everybody has to look at it and point to it and talk about it. Oh, a dead cat. Oh, a dead cat. Oh, my God, there's a dead cat on the table. Do we like a dead cat? What are your thoughts on dead cats? I hate dead cats.

I for one, I'm not a fan of a, I for one, love a dead cat. So by throwing a dead cat on the table, it forces the entire media apparatus, the entire conversation about politics, has to focus around this issue. And that is, nuclear at the moment, is just this month's dead cat. There'll be another dead cat later on, I'm sure. And a radiated cat, perhaps. But to be fair, to be fair, nuclear is, I mean, nuclear is a whole other way of killing the planet. It is. If you get rid of coal and gas, you have no more carbon emissions.

instead you have a much cleaner, as they say, fossil fuel. And definitely greener. Like everything will be green. You will be green, I'll be green, a food will be green. Everything will glow green. It's going to be great. But this is the thing Charles has been talking about is he sees this as a whole conspiracy theory whereby it's actually about prolonging fossil fuels.

It's about making renewables. The sort of business case for renewables gets undermined because if there's uncertainty about the transition and whether it's actually going to happen, then that happens. And the detail that I found most fascinating when we looked at this, and I haven't seen whether this is still the policy, but certainly David Little Proud said it, the Nationals Leader, and it's sort of come through in some of the things I looked at at the time when we did an episode on it, they planned two and a half years of consultation before going anywhere. So they want to sit down with the communities for nearly the whole of the next term

if they win before doing a thing. So it's not as if they're going to be even, you know, hitting go until just before the following election, if Peter Dutton wins the next election here in Australia. And so it's extraordinary how much it's a plan not to really do anything, given that A, we don't even have small modular nuclear reactors. And I think the last developer of them, didn't they just, a couple of weeks ago, just cancel the program to develop these things? Yeah, new scale went up, their latest project went up in dust. But I'm sure there'll be another one coming down the line. Like, there's such a push for this in America. They're trying to find ways to do it, but none of the states want a small modular

nuclear reactor. Can we call them fun-sized nuclear reactors? I think that really works marketing wise. I mean, I think you and Charles are very much correct, like this is a delay thing for fossil fuels. And little proud, little proud by the very nature of consulting for two years means that it doesn't actually have to do anything in the third year, which is great. But that probably the only thing that I really like about Dutton's plan is that it is owned by the federal government, that it's owned by the Commonwealth. But that is a very communist idea. And I don't think liberals consider themselves communists. I don't think liberals liberal voters would ever think that this communist idea is actually, is actually formed,

actually goes with their ideals as a party, isn't it? We can't sell, we can't sell the private sector on it. That seems to have been completely acknowledged that there's no private company that wants to invest in this stuff. Like as much as private companies are desperate to build any piece of infrastructure you want, railways, roads, they've just suggested off their own bat to build another light rail line in Sydney up Parramatta Road. You know, if they think they can turn a buck in an infrastructure project,

they'll absolutely push for it. But none of them are pushing for nuclear at this point. So it's got to be good old state-owned. That's it. Just like in communist Russia. Yeah. Which is kind of like, you know, I kind of like the idea. I mean, me, as someone who's a big fan of infrastructure being within sovereign hands, I really like that idea.

I think that's great. You know, I'm a big fan of the NBN because of what it's, because it's owned by, you know, us. I'm a big fan of the army because currently the army's owned by us. Sure. You know, that could change in the future. For now. Yeah. So, you know, it's just one of those things.

things where it's like what they're actually, what they're proposing is runs against every single ideological kind of bent that they as a party have. It's so strange. It's very, it's, it's so crazy. It's not, it's not supported by the market, owned by the government. These are things the antithesis of being a liberal. Now, Dan, do you want to see more detail before you vote for this? What's your feeling on that? Because if you don't know, how do you think you should vote? Look, if you don't know, vote no, is the correct way of doing this. Yeah, I agree, yeah. Look, as someone who was working hard to try and get a yes vote in the referendum,

it's very easy for me to roll that out. But as someone who likes to know the details, I've looked into the details and I still want to vote no. All right. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser Report should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser Report. It is a strange moment, though, isn't it, where the left is so ascending. and certainly in Australia's closest allies and so on. And yet, there's a lack of confidence.

There's a lot of stress. And yet, Dan, I really want to get your thoughts on finally what's going on in the states as we sort of complete our survey of how everyone's traveling at this point and you're reading all this because it's a very strange one. The Democrats have outperformed the polls in 2020. People didn't think Biden would win. In 2022, as he points out, there was talk of a red wave that didn't eventuate. And the Democrats managed to retain control of the Senate.

but now it seems as though the Democrats' main focus, at least a lot of them internally, is actually getting rid of Joe Biden. There's a mass panic going on. Do you share the sense that they've got to replace the big guy that he's done? Or do you think he should, do you think Grandpa should hold on for four more years? Look, I'm not too concerned. I think, look, if I've learned anything from the United States of America, innovation is so big over there.

Like, for instance, billionaire, Brian Johnson, he's just spent $2 million a year by swapping blood. with his 17-year-old son. And he looks so much younger now. He's, you know, he is 70, but he looks 50. You know, I think we can do this with Joe Biden. We could swap Joe Biden's blood with Pete Buttigieg. And I think that will find... I thought you were going to say Hunter.

And I was going to say, look, I don't think that's a good idea. We know that blood's been. I don't think it's going. That blood has been tested, and that would put... Look, sure, look, he might actually... Joe Biden might have a lot more energy. That's true. Given the amount of drugs than Hunter Brighton's blood.

Pete Buttigieg is the guy, isn't he? That's perfect. Yeah, I mean, he looks, Pete Buttigieg looks like he's, you know, 14 or 15. So it would give Joe Biden, you know, the youth he needs, the stem cells he needs to build, build his courage and build his strength up against Donald Trump. Build back better. Build back better. No, it's been talking about intern Pete, Mayor Pete, as the potential replacement if Biden goes.

But he's been a very effective sort of prosecutor for Biden's case. Whenever he goes on Fox News, he seems to make mincemeat out of the hoop. before he's talking about. He's a very, very bright guy. This is the thing. The number one way, Dom, to signal that you are ready to take over from Joe Biden is to go on cable news and be available to tell everyone that Joe Biden is perfectly fine and can absolutely become the next president of the United States. That's the way that you can put your face next to Joe Biden's and people will go, oh, maybe Gavin Newsom would be a better president. It's so funny that Gavin Newsom.

Yuson coming on straight after the debate on every cable channel defending Joe Biden. And it's like, Gavin Newsom, you're not in federal politics. You're a former Californian governor. You're very extraneous to this. Why are you there giving your opinion? Oh, you're there so people can see that you're ready and waiting in the wings to take over from Biden. It's so obvious, Gavin Newsom. Yeah, no, absolutely.

I think he might be the incumbent, actually, in California, which I'm surprised he has the time. Oh, but he's not former. Yeah, he's the governor. I'm surprised he has the time to get in there and make the case. Yeah, but I mean, Kamala Harris, possibly the black woman Biden was thinking of when he said he was a black woman the other day, although she was also South Asian. I mean, speaking of black women, like, you know, the number one most popular Democrat in America is Michelle Obama.

Absolutely. But there's no way she's going to run because she's seen what it's done to her family. But I would say another great option who isn't in the mix anywhere, in any kind of think, piece I've read is Stacey Abrams. Oh, yeah, from Georgia. From Georgia. From, she ran in Georgia as governor, unsuccessfully. I'm very close.

Very close. But I think she's, I've seen her speaker a dozen times and I think she's so impressive and she would run the pants around Trump. Okay. So there's another few possibilities there. But you don't think they need to pull the pin. You think he can kind of muddle on with a team around him? No, I was just saying that as a joke.

I think they should definitely pull the pin. There's no way. There's no way. they should definitely get rolled Biden. If this was Australia, we'd have like 10 options already doing the numbers. And people, it would be all over. Except in America, it's this kind of faceless kind of D&C that kind of run the show for the parties. For the Democratic Party, the DNC runs it.

So they've got to make the call in their internal machinations. But it's very, very strange. I think there's this thing called a brokered convention, and we're coming up to the conventions in the next couple of weeks. what could happen is they could say there's going to be no nominee and we'll sort it out at the convention and that would be ultimately awesome because they could fight out amongst themselves you could get a few high profile people up on the DNC stage and fight it out argue and debate and find a nominee that way and I reckon that would be awesome but the Democratic Party isn't very democratic this is the

thing it's not like one person of the party well one member of the party has one vote there are delegates of the party who are called super delegates and the super delegates are an level of Democrat and they get to have a lot more power than the rest of the party. So you may have enormous popularity amongst the entire Democratic Party, but you've just got to woo yourself to a few hundred other people called these super delegates. And if you can get the super delegates on board and then you have a nomination, it's a very strange way to, like, it's a very ironic to call yourself the Democratic Party, but actually not be very democratic at all.

Who are they? Are they sort of union officials or granddad? Are they just miscellaneous Kennedys who are in there? Exactly. I believe it's all Kennedys. Except for the one who's running. You're a Kennedy, Clinton and an Obama. Yeah. Yeah. Sasha and Malaya, I think they are two superdelegates themselves. Yeah. It's people who are a lot. It's people who've been in the party a long time. It's the lead of the party.

All right. So there you go. Now, finally, Dan, coming up towards the end of the year, any plans for irrational fear? What are you up to in the second half of 2024? What's going on? That's what you can tell us about? Well, irational fear has been really quiet lately because not only has, Lewis had a baby, but my career has taken off for some reason. So it's been, it's been, I've been in, you and Charles both at the same time. Who knew? It's like all of a sudden, all of a sudden I've got all these jobs I have to do.

Wonderful. So it's been a bit hard to kind of fit the podcast in. But gratefully, there's quite a few months coming up where there's no work. So the podcast will be started. I'm also getting married in a few weeks. So my focus is mainly on getting married. And once I'm married, I'll have this asset that my wife is entitled, to. So irrational fear, she'll take half of that if we take up. So it's in my best interest

to keep it going and keep it healthy. That's a tough ask, isn't it? Will you marry me, but also take on half of the responsibility for irrational fear? So the good news is the election is coming up in Australia, probably at the beginning of next year. So we're going to be back in full swing with the rational fear from September pumping out podcasts, live shows and sketches like we normally do. But, you know, we've taken most this year off. So, you know, we're not, We're not going to be doing too much for the Australian podcast awards, Dom. So we'll leave that up to you. Very good.

I feel like you're giving me the wedding present. No, this is what I got you down. I got you an appearance on The Chaser Report. Congratulations from all of us. We're so happy for you. Thanks very much. Wonderful wedding. There is one project that's coming up in October that I would love people to keep an eye out for.

It's called Longhead. It is a sketch comedy series by Melbourne animator and illustrator Millie Holton. And she is hysterical. And it's a sketch comedy series. series, by the namesake, with the main character, being Longhead, voiced by Sam Campbell and Tom Walker and Kate Dennett. And it's so funny. So we just finished production on that, and that's coming out in October. So hopefully you can keep track of that. Okay, so look out for Longhead later in the year. We might have a chat for the people involved on the pod when that

all happens. Well, Dan, thank you for being with us. It's been lovely to catch up over Zoom in front of microphones. And yeah, we'll catch up with you later in the year. Have an excellent wedding. As we say in Australia media, good to be with you. Catch you later. Or as Joe Biden would say. It's good to be with you as my favorite black podcaster. He's really got to go, doesn't he? As do we.

Our Gary is from Road, we're part of the Iconiclass Network. We'll catch you next time.