Craig Reucassel

Craig Bruce Reucassel is an Australian television and radio comedian. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser. He hosted the Australian version of Balls of Steel, which premiered in April 2011. Since 2013, Reucassel and fellow Chaser Julian Morrow have been main presenters on the ABC program The Checkout. In 2017, Reucassel presented the four-part ABC TV series War on Waste which focused on clothing and food waste in Australia, its environmental impacts and what can be done to help reduce waste. This was followed by a second series, Fight For Planet A: Our Climate Challenge in 2018, which focused on the use of plastics, and particularly 'single-use' plastics such as straws. Alongside publishing the program, Big Weather And How To Survive It (2020): an exploration of how to survive extreme weather events, Reucassel directed the two-part ABC TV series Big Deal (2021). The series presented by actor Christian Van Vuuren, investigated the influence of lobbying and donations on Australia's political system.

Craig Reucassel
Reucassel in 2013
Birth nameCraig Bruce Reucassel
BornSouth Africa
MediumRadio, television, print and stage
NationalityAustralian
Years active1999–present
GenresSatirical comedy
SpouseKeisha Hopgood
Children2
Notable works and rolesThe Chaser
The Chaser Decides (2001, 2004, 2007)
CNNNN (2002–03)
The Chaser's War on Everything (2006–07, 2009)
The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour (2008)
Yes We Canberra! (2010)
The Checkout (2013–2018)
The Hamster Decides (2013)
War on Waste (2017–23)
Websitechaser.com.au

Early life

Reucassel was born in South Africa and moved to Adelaide at a young age with his parents.[1][2][3] There, he attended Semaphore Park Primary School.[4] The family relocated to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, and Reucassel attended Bowral Public School and Bowral High School.[5][1] In 1993, he represented Bowral High School at The Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking competition.

Reucassel attended the University of Sydney, and completed a Bachelor of Economics (Social Science) degree in 1999 and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2002. With a strong dedication to extracurricular activities on campus, Reucassel ran the arts revue and the canoe club, and was an editor of the student newspaper Honi Soit.[6] He also debated at several World Universities Debating Championships, ranking 30th in the World at Manila in 1999[7] and 167th in Glasgow in 2001.[8] In 2000 he competed in the Philip C. Jessup Cup international law mooting competition, his team winning the Australian rounds.[9] He graduated from the Sydney Law School, along with Chaser colleagues Julian Morrow, Dominic Knight and Chas Licciardello.[10]

Triple J

In 2004 and 2005, Reucassel co-hosted the drive-time radio show Today Today on Triple J with fellow Chaser Chris Taylor.[11][12] The pair returned with their Sunday afternoon show Bloody Sunday to do relief shifts in mid-2006 and summer 2006–07.

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.[11] 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,[13] 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 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 Howard's morning walks. To test the Prime Minister's security arrangements, he approached 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.[14][15] 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.[16]

Other work
Reucassel speaking at the 2017 Australian Skeptics convention.

In 2012 Reucassel was a patron of the Left Right Think-Tank, Australia's first independent and non-partisan youth think-tank.[17]

In 2019 he began acting as one of the hosts of The Drum on ABC TV.

Television

References
  1. "Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery". Media Spy. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  2. "Fight for Planet A". Hawke Centre. University of South Australia. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. Simon Wooldridge (1 September 2007). "Burning with the times". Rolling Stone Australia.
  4. Rebekah Devlin; Peter Woods; Carla Caruso; Noami Jellicoe (20 June 2005). "Ducking the dark days of childhood". The Advertiser.
  5. McClellan, Ben (15 March 2011). "Chaser star at White Ribbon do". Southern Highland News. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  6. "Editors". Honi Soit.
  7. World Debate Website Archived 23 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  8. World Debate Website Archived 18 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "The Sydney Law School Reports – Volume 1 2000" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2007.
  10. "The Sydney Law School Reports – April 2004 Newsletter" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2007.
  11. Quinn, Ben (15 October 2005). "Comedy of terrors". The Newcastle Herald. Jhn Fairfax Holdings Limited.
  12. Javes, Sue (8 November 2003). "Identity Crisis Chases Sons of Satire into Radio Make-or-break". The Sydney Morning Herald. John Fairfax Holdings Limited.
  13. "Speedo wearing comedian confronts Debnam". The Age. 19 March 2007.
  14. "Australia's Most Wanted – The Chaser's War on Comedy". The Australian. 17 March 2007.
  15. "Chaser star cleared over Bulldogs stunt". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 23 January 2007. Archived from the original on 24 January 2007.
  16. The Chaser's War on Everything Season 1.2 DVD audio commentary.
  17. "Craig Reucassel". Left Right Think-Tank. Archived from the original on 14 January 2012.
  18. "Spy Shop". JTV. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  19. "The Chaser – The Silic & Lee Show at the Logies 2012". SilicAndLeeShow. 25 April 2012. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  20. The Silic & Lee Show at the Logies: Red Carpet Special 2012 at IMDb
  21. ""The War on Waste"". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  22. ""War on Waste: Craig Reucassel reveals the shocking truth about our bananas"". News.com.au. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  23. ""Take up the challenge… Fight for Planet A"". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  24. "Australia it's time to get prepared for… Big Weather (and how to survive it)". ABC Help. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  25. "Airdate: Big Deal". TV Tonight. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  26. Connery, Tess (19 October 2021). "Why Craig Reucassel tackled the political lobbying industry on Big Deal". Mediaweek. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  27. "Is Australian politics as corrupt as the USA? This week on Big Deal". TV Blackbox. 25 October 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
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