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Tony Martin

Tony Martin (born 10 June 1964) is a comedian and writer from Te Kuiti, New Zealand who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.

Initially gaining recognition for his involvement with The D-Generation in the 1980's, Martin is now best known for his top-rating national radio program Martin/Molloy, which he co-hosted with Mick Molloy from 1995 until 1998.

Martin/Molloy produced three ARIA award winning compilation albums: The Brown Album (1995), Poop Chute (1996) and Eat Your Peas (1998).

Martin's major TV work was on the ABC comedy The Late Show (1992–1993). He also made several appearances on The Panel, the infamous The Mick Molloy Show, and in Kath & Kim (as Magda Szubanski's fiddle-playing boyfriend).

Martin wrote, produced and directed the 2003 comedy movie Bad Eggs. He has also played minor roles in several films (mostly those of former Late Show colleagues), including The Castle (1997), Tackle Happy (2000), Crackerjack (2002) and BoyTown (2006).

2005 saw the release of Martin's first book Lolly Scramble, a humorous account of his childhood.

On 3 April 2006, Martin returned to the Austereo network to produce a nationally-syndicated show with Ed Kavalee on Triple M named Get This, which broadcasts from 9am–10am weekdays (5pm-6pm in Adelaide).

Personal life

Tony Martin grew up in the small New Zealand towns of Te Kuiti and Thames.

As a child, he lived on a boat for five months of the year for two years as his father was a part-time amateur marlin fisherman. As there was no TV, he would listen to radio programs like The Goon Show and try to copy the voices. Tony is famous for his range of comic impressions.

Tony Martin's first job, straight out of high school, was as a forklift driver at an army surplus store. He usually worked wearing items from the store, including amongst other things a WWII Japanese Admiral's uniform. On the Get This show of 15 September, 2006, he highlighted the serious issue of workplace bullying by revealing that at this job he was often tied up and left hanging from the ceiling in a burlap sack. Martin confirmed this on the 25 September episode of the show.
At the age of 18, Tony moved to Hamilton where he landed a job with a radio copy writer, which eventually secured his first passage to Australia when a visiting executive from the station's sister outfit in Brisbane needed a new writer.

A self-proclaimed "film nerd" who watches as many as 300 movies a year, Martin often refers to his encylopaedic knowledge of film and television trivia.

Tony's knowledge of film was entirely self-taught, often from listening to director's commentaries of films. He claims he learned a year's worth of film school from Robert Altman's commentary on The Player and Martin Scorsese's on Taxi Driver.

Tony is also the voice behind Bargearse, dubbed episodes of Bluey featured on The Late Show.

Martin married Annie Maver on 2 January, 1997 in Las Vegas, apparently on a whim. She is a floor manager on The Panel and RocKwiz, and has worked as an assistant director in Australian movies and television productions. Tony met her when she was a floor manager on The D-Generation.

Martin suffers from haemochromatosis and gastroesophageal reflux disease and often jokes about his health. He has made references to his "many odd medical problems relating to his health" on Get This.

Tony Martins dream as a young boy was to become a japanese dancer, this was put to a halt when his dance teacher told him he would never amount to anything this shattering Martins dream.