Taking The Mikey
Sun Herald
Sunday March 17, 2002
Radio host and comedian Mikey Robins failed as a clown before he found his real talent for making people laugh
His career as a children's party clown started with Mikey Robins being attacked by a dog and ended with him being sacked, but in between were quite a few life- changing events. He got wise to children ("Giving them too much red cordial is like giving an MCG crowd full-strength beer") and began to put on weight ("Saturday and Sunday, your diet consisted of cake, chocolate crackles and fairy bread"). He also found ways to deal with critics and to be quick on his feet.
The Newcastle-raised radio host/author/comedian joined a clown troupe while studying arts and drama at university. The troupe planned to do "leftist material" until they discovered children's parties paid better. Attacked by a german shepherd as he arrived at his first party, Robins soon discovered a talent for face painting and getting children to play games. But, he says, "I was a fat clown who couldn't juggle. The phrase I heard most as I was leaving the party was, 'Next year we'll get a pony...'"
Robins and clowning parted company when, hired for a wine festival where there were no kids, he sampled the merchandise. "I got hauled in front of the clown council and fired," he admits sheepishly.
Robins's resume is an inspiration to late bloomers and dilettantes everywhere. These days, at 40, his salary is six figures, but he didn't earn "a real wage" until he was 29. He began his working life making after-school deliveries for a pharmacy, moving on to supermarket jobs ("Code six in aisle five means someone's vomited!"). But his ambitions lay elsewhere. "I wanted to be a lawyer, because whenever you said that, it always really impressed grown-ups."
At university, Robins got involved in the end-of-year revue. His jokes got laughs, and he earned $20 to spend at the pub. He did a bit of acting, joined a cabaret troupe, The Castanet Club, did Elvis impersonations and tried stand-up - he was booed from the stage after 10 minutes but he learned a lesson he lives by: "Criticism can hurt, but it's just someone's opinion."
Already this year, the author and former Good News Week panellist has fronted national TV specials and found his way back into breakfast radio, for Sydney's Triple M, after seven years with Triple J.
Not bad for a former dishwasher who lied to get his first job in radio, telling Triple J he could operate a radio station panel to snare the midnight-to-dawn shift. On his first night, admits Robins, "I took the station off air five times."
His wife is his manager, he often chooses to collaborate with friends and he makes it a rule to "work with people you trust".
"I've always been a lucky bastard," he admits. "I've never had a plan." But most rewarding of all, says Robins, "I get paid a nice amount of money to do a job I would do for nothing. I get to work with my friends, I meet people I respect and on Fridays, I can go out for lunch."
© 2002 Sun Herald