Dan Ilic

Dan Ilic
Ilic in 2022
Born (1981-11-20) 20 November 1981 (age 43)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation(s)Comedian, actor, filmmaker, broadcaster
Known forThe Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Beaconsfield: The Musical, Hungry Beast, So where the bloody hell are you?, Can of Worms
Websitehttp://www.danilic.com/

Dan Ilic (born 20 November 1981) is an Australian presenter, comedian and filmmaker.[1] Ilic has been known for his parody work, including videos and Beaconsfield: The Musical, which he wrote, and more recently for his work on the show Hungry Beast. Dan's mother is half Lebanese and half Italian. Dan's father was born in Germany to Serbian parents. He was previously the head of satirical content for digital content provider AJ+ until he was fired for misusing company materials for a failed audition to The Daily Show.

Performing

Ilic started his performing career with the Cumberland Gang Show and eventually joined the production team as a junior producer at the age of 13. He spent 11 years performing and producing Cumberland Gang Show, and became a regular fixture in Sydney's amateur musical theatre scene.[2][3][4]

At Macquarie University he performed in several shows including Chris McDonald's The Beatification of Newt Berton, the Great Viagra Robbery (in which performed with Heath Franklin and James Pender).[5] The show toured to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and a short run in Canberra in 2003.[6]

Ilic was also part of the university sketch comedy The 3rd Degree which formed the base of the Network Ten's cult sketch comedy television show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour with Ilic not only a cast member and writer, but also animator and producer of several sketches.

In 2007 he started the Sydney sketch comedy club night Comicide and in 2008 toured a "best of" show, Comicide: Death by Funny, to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[7][8]

Ilic was a reporter/presenter on the Andrew Denton produced show Hungry Beast, aired on ABC1, and as a writer/performer on Can of Worms on Network Ten. After Hungry Beast finished its second season in 2010, Ilic was one of nine members of the team to be selected by Denton to develop online content for Zapruder's Other Films.[9]

Other television appearances include Romper Room (Seven Network), 9am with David & Kim (Network Ten), 4 Corners (ABC-TV), and ADbc (Special Broadcasting Service). He now hosts a podcast that many have described as a Bert Newtown take on Louis Theroux.

Beaconsfield: The Musical

Ilic's production Beaconsfield: The Musical, which premiered in Melbourne in late 2008, focused on the media circus that surrounded the events of the 2006 Beaconsfield mine collapse.[10] The show received strong reviews,[11][12] but its original title, Beaconsfield: A Musical in A-Flat Minor, was strongly criticised, leading to the change in name.[10]

Directing

In 2008, Dan moved to Melbourne to direct The Comedy Channel's satirical news program, The Mansion starring Michael Chamberlin and Charlie Pickering. He has also filmed and produced a selection of short video parodies, along with other related online work. These have included filming and editing for the Axis of Awesome's Election '07 Rap Battle;[13][14] an anti-web censorship advertisement, Censordyne, produced for GetUp;[15] a parody website describing a fake television series about the murder of Michael McGurk;[16] and a parody video of the Freeview advertising campaign produced for Massage My Medium, a comedy stand-up routine featuring Ilic and Marc Fennell, which in turn was removed from YouTube when it was accused of being a copyright violation, as the work employed footage from the advertisement being parodied.[17]

At times his work has been the subject of criticism – his parody of the Where the bloody hell are you? advertising campaign, designed to attract tourists to Australia, received threats of legal action from Tourism Australia.[18][19][20] Ilic was also behind Vicroads' controversial "Don't be a dickhead" campaign, which makes fun of "gingers" and "emos" in an attempt to create awareness of using mobile phones while driving.[21][22][23]

In December 2014 it was announced that Ilic would take up a position in San Francisco as "senior producer of satire" with AJ+, part of Al Jazeera Media Network. But in 2015 he was sacked after using company equipment to film an audition for The Daily Show.[24] [25]

References

  1. ^ Blundell, Graeme (30 May 2009). "Is this the future of television?". The Australian. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  2. ^ "Cumberland Gang Show Forums – Before We Joined Gang Show". Archived from the original on 1 October 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Mosman Musical Society – Previous Shows". mosmanmusicalsociety.com.au. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007.
  5. ^ "Laughing Stock – the Beatification of Newt Berton and the Great Viagra Robbery".
  6. ^ "Newt Berton Review". Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  7. ^ "Comicide". Archived from the original on 30 October 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  8. ^ "Comicide: Death by Funny". Comedy Festival Season 2008. Archived from the original on 19 December 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  9. ^ Jackson, Sally (12 April 2010). "Digital natives held to spin new web". The Australian. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  10. ^ a b McDonald, Patrick (12 March 2009). "Comics mining the media circus". The Advertiser. Adelaide, Australia. p. 15.
  11. ^ Woodhead, Cameron (16 April 2009). "Beaconsfield: The Musical". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  12. ^ Paul, Margaret (10 October 2008). "Panning for comedy gold". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. p. 15.
  13. ^ Hills, Rachel (21 October 2007). "Video wars rock the vote". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  14. ^ "Election '07 Rap Battle". Axis of Awesome. 15 October 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  15. ^ Moses, Asher (9 July 2009). "Censordyne: net censoring gets a toothpasting". Brisbane Times. Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  16. ^ Nicholls, Sean; Dunn, Emily (11 September 2009). "It Jumped the Shark". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  17. ^ Moses, Asher (9 March 2009). "YouTube yanks Freeview parody clip". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  18. ^ "Internet parody of Tourism Australia's controversial "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign". The Times. London, England. 28 March 2006. p. 3.
  19. ^ Dan Illic (13 September 2006). "Where The Bloody Hell Are You? Spoof". Archived from the original on 20 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  20. ^ Nicolas Suzor. "Where the bloody hell does parody fit in Australian copyright law?" (PDF).
  21. ^ Levy, Megan (30 March 2010). "'Dickhead' creator tickled pink over red-head fury". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Archived from the original on 4 April 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  22. ^ Sexton, Reid (30 March 2010). "Road safety campaign risks spinning out of control". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  23. ^ "VicRoads says 'don't be a dickhead' in new online campaign". mUmBRELLA. 29 March 2010.
  24. ^ Emily Bowden (15 June 2015). "Al Jazeera fires comedian Dan Ilic for using studio to apply for The Daily Show". Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  25. ^ "Dan Ilic to head satirical comedy project for Al Jazeera in US to woo younger audience". mUmBRELLA. 19 December 2014.