We chat with TV host and funnyman Rove McManus about his future plans

WORDS KYLIE MILLER

Sitting at one end of an enormous timber table in the boardroom of his inner-city offices, comedian and variety-show host Rove McManus appears, not surprisingly, to have aged a little over the past year – but there’s a lightness to him as well. After several months away from the limelight following the death of his beloved wife, actor and singer Belinda Emmett in November after a long public battle with cancer, McManus is looking towards the future.

Photo: Erin Slattery Professionally and personally, he’s in a good place. His live Sunday show – now simply titled Rove and in its seventh year on Network Ten – has been reinvigorated with a new timeslot, new sets and a new cast of comedic talent. The audience has embraced the change, and the network is happy with the improvement in the show’s performance.

And other opportunities have emerged. As we chat, McManus is preparing to fly to the United States to broadcast Rove live over consecutive weekends from New York and Los Angeles. While he’s in LA, he’s also doing a spot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – his second appearance on the show in four months.

For the first time in his life, McManus is allowing himself to consider an international career; something he says was never previously an option. His recently engaged LA agent is setting up meetings with “people who count”.

The Tonight Show spot came about by happy accident – he likes to think of it as karmic repayment for past sadness – when one of Leno’s producers chanced on an episode of Rove while holidaying in New Zealand. Through a string of “six-degrees” connections, the producer invited McManus to drop in if he was ever in LA.

McManus with Rove cast members,
Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar
Adam Haddrick Photography

“Obviously, we were aware of the fact that the invitation might not stay on the table for very long, and someone might go on another holiday and find someone else!” he says, laughing. “We gave them a call and said, ‘Look, if we can make it up are you interested?’ ” The segment went so well that Leno invited him back.

The story of McManus’ success is widely known in Australia: the young Perth comedian with big dreams; the 22-year-old who moved to Melbourne to try to make a living in stand-up comedy and just a few years later won the coveted Gold Logie award as host of a national variety show.

At a still-boyish 33, McManus has his own production company, Roving Enterprises, and a slate of shows including Rove, Before the Game, the annual Aria music awards, Real Stories and a new US-market show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. His career has given him opportunities most people can only dream of.

 

“I got asked five years ago what I’d like to do in five years’ time and I’m doing it. When I was at [community TV station] Channel 31, I had two dreams: one was to be invited to the Logies within five years – and within five years I had been nominated for gold, so that was pretty cool. And the other one was to do what I was doing on community television with a wider audience – to get to do a tonight show … and here I am doing it!”

McManus insists that working in Los Angeles, as appealing as it may be, is not so much a goal as a possibility he wants to pursue. His contract is up with Channel Ten at the end of the year and the future is “a blank canvas”. He’s happy not knowing what might end up on it. “Everybody else keeps talking about these amazing things that I’m apparently doing when there’s nothing there. I’m not being offered anybody’s job in the States. Will I be? I don’t know. Would it be nice? Yes.

“But when you’ve got a show that you love doing more than just about anything else, you’re not going to suddenly drop it because the idea of moving to America is exciting … That would just be silly.

McManus and Rove guest,
actor Lisa McCune swap
outfits
©Roving Enterprises “The wonderful part of it is that I’m really happy. I’m really happy. I don’t need it.”

McManus has come a long way since early this year when, in the depths of his grief, he considered tossing it all in. Once he stepped off the treadmill, he says, he seriously considered not climbing back on. “Not just doing the show, it’s everything that comes with it. That was getting increasingly difficult, but that wasn’t just because of the show. Everything was difficult, life was difficult.”

Fortunately for his fans, part of him also knew he’d miss his old life, and the show that has helped fulfil so many dreams.

“Despite the reasons for being away at the start of the year, getting off the treadmill was an eye-opener. I still am giving myself a bit of time to catch my breath in the course of a week, breathing a bit deeper. You can still work very hard without getting so caught up in it that you can’t see anything else.”

So he’s savouring all the pleasures life throws him, including those special moments in Leno’s studio, sitting at the desk of a tonight-show institution. “I thought, if that’s it for me, I’ve been on The Tonight Show. That’s cool! If nothing comes from this, if I never end up on the other side of that desk, I don’t care. If I’m still doing something that I enjoy and I love, if I’m doing it here, if I’m doing it on the North Pole, if I’m doing it in the States, that’s all that matters to me.

“At the same time, I’m doing a show here that’s going very well, that I’m enjoying, and that I think with the way that we’ve changed it has a new shelf life and could last a while.

“These options are all good. But if they all fall over, jeez, I was at the zoo the other day and I could do that too!”

Rove McManus on travel
Honolulu is my favourite destination. The beaches are amazing, the landscape is captivating and the locals are really friendly. Plus, it feels like summer all year round there and that’s hard to beat.

Kylie Miller says
I’ve interviewed Rove McManus several times throughout his TV career. This time, the first since the death of his wife Belinda, I found him reinvigorated, philosophical and happy again to consider what his future might hold – even if it means working at the zoo!