This piece was published before the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Writer and broadcaster Titus O'Reily (who boasts a dedicated 300,000 social media followers) is back for another round, this time focusing his material on the not-so-subtle art of cheating.
We all know cheating exists in sport. It happens all the time. In athletics, swimming, AFL, NRL, cricket, tennis, curling. . . Yep, curling.
In 'The Not-So-Subtle Art Of Cheating', Titus touches on the many and varied ways we've seen athletes and countries cheat and try to cheat over the years.
He answers questions about what he'll be discussing in the show.
When did you realise there was enough material on this subject for you to put together a show based on cheating in sport?
I guess I’d always known, but when I saw there was drug cheating in curling, yes that sport with the brooms on the ice, I realised there was enough material for several comedy festivals, let alone shows.
Is there any ridiculous cheating examples you've come across that you can share with us before the show?
By far my favourite is the male US basketballer who tested positive after a drug test, the only problem was, it was a positive result for pregnancy. Turns out he’d used his girlfriend’s urine to pass the drug test, and that’s how they found out they were having a baby.
And what's your fascination with the world of sport?
Sport is just humanity under enormous pressure, so you get the extremes of everything, the good, the bad, the time a fair chunk of the field in the Tour de France caught the train. All the stuff that makes us human.
It's clearly something Australia resonates with, but if you were to ever cover a subject in your comedy aside from sport, what would it be and why?
I used to think it would be politics, but it’s so bonkers now I don’t even know where you’d start, it’s like the world’s politicians have created the greatest political sitcom ever but it’s real.
Back to the subject at hand, do you have any idea of what element of the sporting world you'll look at next?
I’ve been looking a lot at sport around the world and the history of it all. If there’s one think that unites all people, it’s that when it comes to sport, we all collectively lose our minds. It’s the same with cheating, it happens across cultures, and across genders. Cheating in sport is one area where women actually have equality with men, they do it just as much.
What are you most looking forward to about presenting this show?
The topic mainly, the stories are so bizarre you’d think they were made up, but they are all true and will leave people shaking their heads, while also hopefully laughing.
