Craig Reucassel

Craig Reucassel
Craig Reucassel
Birth name	Craig Bruce Reucassel
Born	1 January 1977 (1977-01-01) (age 34) South Africa
Medium	Radio, Television, Print & Stage
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1999-present
Genres	Satirical comedy
Notable works and roles	The Chaser The Chaser Decides (2001, 2004, 2007) CNNNN (2002-2003) The Chaser's War On Everything (2006-2007) The Chaser's Age Of Terror Variety Hour(2008) Yes We Canberra! (2010)
Website	http://www.chaser.com.au

Craig Bruce Reucassel (born 31 December 1976^{[citation needed]}, in South Africa) is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser. He currently hosts the Australian version of Balls of Steel, which premiered in April 2011.

Early years

Reucassel was born in South Africa and later moved to Adelaide with his parents.^[1] There, he attended Semaphore Park Primary School.^[2] Reucassel later attended Bowral Public School in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, becoming the only Chaser member to be public school educated. In 1993 while attending the school he represented the school in the The Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking competition, as did future Chaser member Julian Morrow. At the time he was noted for using game theory in his selection of HSC subjects, choosing to major in the humanities. He graduated from Bowral High School with a UAI of 99.90.

Reucassel attended the University of Sydney, graduating with Arts and Law degrees. With a strong dedication to extracurricular activities on campus, Reucassel ran the Arts revue, the rowing club, and debated at several World Championships including ranking 30th in the World at Manila in 1999,^[3] and ranking 167th in Glasgow in 2001.^[4] Furthermore, in 2000 he competed in the Philip C. Jessup Cup international law mooting competition, his team winning the Australian rounds.^[5] He graduated from the Sydney Law School, along with Chaser colleagues Julian Morrow, Dominic Knight and Chas Licciardello.^[6]

Triple J

In 2004 and 2005, Reucassel co-hosted the drive-time radio show Today Today on Triple J with fellow Chaser Chris Taylor.^[7][8] The pair returned with their Sunday afternoon show Bloody Sunday to do relief shifts in mid-2006 and summer 2006-07.

Craig to return Triple J radio as moved to ABC TV entertainment shows.

The Chaser's War on Everything

Reucassel with Dominic Knight and Chris Taylor (right) during the cardboard motorcade stunt as part of their series of APEC pranks.

Reucassel was a founding member of the satirical multi-media group The Chaser team, and worked to produce their satirical newspaper, as well as television shows on ABC TV including The Election Chaser, CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Chaser's War on Everything.^[7] He has been one of the main presenters on The War since the pilot episode. He and his wife Keisha have three children together, and their son Ollie has appeared on some of the sketches on The War. Reucassel was often the one selected to confront former Prime Minister John Howard on his morning walks, most famously in the axe stunt (see below).

Speedos Incident

On 19 March 2007, during a campaign appearance for the New South Wales State Election, the then opposition leader Peter Debnam was confronted by Reucassel wearing nothing but Speedos and a baseball cap,^[9] making fun of Debnam's campaign appearances in the swimwear. When TV cameras remained focused on Reucassel rather than Mr Debnam, he said, "Sorry, I'm not Peter Debnam, he's over there. Just because I'm wearing this doesn't mean I'm Peter Debnam". Reucassel stuck around for the press conference but failed to draw a response from the opposition leader, and was again ignored when he went to shake Mr Debnam's hand.

The Axe Stunt

On 2 August 2006, Reucassel responded to a news story about a private school student who had hugged then Prime Minister John Howard while holding a screwdriver during one of the PM's morning walks. To test the Prime Minister's security arrangements, he approached John Howard during a morning walk and asked for a hug while holding a large plastic battle axe. Reucassel did receive the hug, but a later approach while holding a running chainsaw was not so successful. There was much debate surrounding whether to turn on the chainsaw and whether they would be shot at for doing this.^[10][11] Cut out from this segment was an unsuccessful attempt that took place between the axe and the chainsaw, in which Reucassel was holding a four-point-star mace.^[12]

Filmography

Himself

• Good News Week
  • Episode #6.6 (2008) TV Episode .... Himself
  • Episode #6.1 (2008) TV Episode .... Himself
• The Einstein Factor
  • 01/03/2009 (2009) TV Episode .... Himself
• Rove
  • 25/05/2008 (2008) TV Episode .... Himself

See also

References

1. ^ Simon Wooldridge (2007-09-01). "Burning with the times". Rolling Stone Australia. 
2. ^ Rebekah Devlin; Peter Woods, Carla Caruso and Noami Jellicoe (2005-06-20). "Ducking the dark days of childhood". The Advertiser. 
3. ^ World Debate Website
4. ^ World Debate Website
5. ^ "The Sydney Law School Reports - Volume 1 2000" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2006-09-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20060917043325/http://www.law.usyd.edu.au/alumni/docs_pdfs/slr2000vol1.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-09. 
6. ^ "The Sydney Law School Reports - April 2004 Newsletter" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2006-09-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20060917043353/http://www.law.usyd.edu.au/alumni/docs_pdfs/slr2004apr.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-09. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Quinn, Ben (2005-10-15). "Comedy of terrors". The Newcastle Herald (John Fairfax Holdings Limited). 
8. ^ Javes, Sue (2003-11-08). "Identity Crisis Chases Sons Of Satire Into Radio Make-or-break". The Sydney Morning Herald (John Fairfax Holdings Limited). 
9. ^ "Speedo wearing comedian confronts Debnam". The Age. 2007-03-19. http://www.theage.com.au/news/NATIONAL/Speedowearing-comedian-confronts-Debnam/2007/03/19/1174152947020.html. 
10. ^ "Australia's MOST WANTED - The Chaser's WAR ON COMEDY". The Australian. 2007-03-17. http://www.newstext.com.au/pages/v.asp?doc=TAM%2D20070317%2D1%2D001%2DK306700%40NAT%2DNEWS%2D2008%2D2007&k2docdate=17/03/2007&querytext=%28Chaser%5C%27s+war+on+comedy%29+%3CAND%3E+%28%28SDate%3E%3D02%2F20%2F2007%29%29&Auth=0&site=ALL&Pick=ONE&dtype=4&f=1&WF=%2Fsupport%2Fdb%2Easp%3Fdoc%3DTAM%252D20070317%252D1%252D001%252DK306700%2540NAT%252DNEWS%252D2008%252D2007%26k2docdate%3D17%2F03%2F2007%26querytext%3D%2528Chaser%255C%2527s%2Bwar%2Bon%2Bcomedy%2529%2B%253CAND%253E%2B%2528%2528SDate%253E%253D02%252F20%252F2007%2529%2529%26Auth%3D0%26v%3D1%26site%3DALL%26Pick%3DONE. 
11. ^ "Chaser star cleared over Bulldogs stunt". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-01-23. http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831871.htm. 
12. ^ The Chaser's War on Everything Season 1.2 DVD audio commentary.

External links

• Craig Reucassel at the Internet Movie Database
• August 2006 Sydney Morning Herald article

Persondata
Name	Reucassel, Craig
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1977-01-01
Place of birth	South Africa
Date of death
Place of death