Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey, SBS review: comedians take a trip with ramshackle authenticity

Shaun Micallef has covered a lot of ground during his media career. While his achievements are too many to comfortably list (you don’t often find professional theatre and breakfast radio side by side on CVs), they can be largely divided into two groups: things he’s done because he thought they’d be funny; and things he’s done because he thought they might be interesting. Don’t be fooled by all the comedians in this show’s lineup. Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey firmly falls into the second category.

In each episode of Origin Odyssey, Micallef teams up with an Australian comedian to explore their heritage by heading overseas to reconnect with their family history. Featuring Aaron Chen, Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, Lizzy Hoo, Dilruk Jayasinha, Nina Oyama and Arj Barker, it’s a mix of travelogue and personal exploration that, to the untrained eye, seems like the kind of ‘comedian takes a trip’ series that we’re fairly familiar with these days.

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If you’re looking for a solid mix of travel facts (there are even on-screen pop ups with useful information) and history of both the personal and national kind, Origin Odyssey delivers everything you’re looking for. Fortunately it’s clear from the start – with an opening scene featuring Micallef and Chen delivering duelling Donald Trump impressions reminiscent of travelogue parody The Trip, quickly followed by Micallef bemoaning the fact that pigs can’t understand the concept of national borders – that this isn’t interested in merely trekking across the same old territory.

The comedians’ own stories are interesting in and of themselves, but beyond that there’s an authenticity to the program itself. Delays, missed connections, getting lost, running for a bus: they’re all left in, giving things a ramshackle feel that boosts both the comedy and the sense of watching something real.

It’s a big help that Micallef is clearly interested in connecting with the comedians. Often documentary hosts see themselves as presenters – the audience’s representative in the story. It’s a perfectly valid approach to a lot of subjects, but that isn’t what’s needed here. Rather than simply being a host or a tour guide, Micallef is engaged with the story being told – he’s as much an interviewer here as he is on his current ABC chat show Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction.

And as anyone who’s been watching Eve of Destruction knows, Micallef can turn a basic conversation into a comedy double act – so long as the other person gives him something to work with. Here he’s teamed with a bunch of stand up comedians who, across the days and weeks, find themselves running out of material; Micallef knows when to go for a joke, and when to step back and let an authentic moment play out.

Micallef knows when to go for a joke, and when to step back and let an authentic moment play out.

The result isn’t the kind of ‘very special interview’ television where the camera slowly zooms in on a tear rolling down the subject’s face. There are plenty of laughs here, and a lot of the kind of raw emotion you’d expect when people start digging into their family’s complicated pasts. And there are some surprises as well. Lizzy Hoo’s Irish past involves the IRA; Nina Oyama is descended from samurai. Aaron Chen, who spends the first episode retracing his father’s somewhat harsh life in China during the 60s and 70s, finds his deadpan comic persona cracking under the weight of what’s revealed.

There’s not a lot new here as far as ingredients go. Even Micallef is a known quantity these days. But Origin Odyssey mixes them together in a way that constantly brings out fresh angles. Micallef’s humour enlivens the travelogue; the comedians personal lives put a new spin on their comedy personas. It does what it promises to, in a way that makes the tried and tested seem new; would that Australian television had more shows like it.

Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey premieres Tuesday 24 September, 7.30pm on SBS and will be available on SBS on Demand.