Rove McManus (Thanks, Fe)

Rove McManus.

I think I like this guy.

I've seen bits of his show before.

He's the one who asks people who they'd turn gay for. Right? Maybe?

I think I saw recently on Twitter that he quit his show, or the show has been canceled? Or maybe I dreamed that.

All right. Time to get to work.

Rove McManus was born in Perth on 21 January 1974. He's younger than me! I didn't really expect that. But we're pretty close in age. I couldn't be his mom or anything.

Birthday Website Time!

McManus is a 7; the same number as me! 7 is all about learning. Doing research for a blog is a great way to do this. And interviewing people for a talk show is another great way.

He's an Aquarius like my new nephew.

This astrology website says this about the Aquarius: Aquarians basically possess strong and attractive personalities. They fall into two principle types: one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient; the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the considerable depths of their character under a cloak of frivolity.

The second type sounds typical of some celebrities. I wonder if it fits McManus.

What would our world be like if we

knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 

Lord Wiki says that although McManus was born in Australia; he grew up in England. I wonder why.

Maybe because he didn't. I think Lord Wiki made a mistake. Either that or I'm missing something here. He says McManus grew up in England, but then he says he went to school in Western Australia. That's an awfully long commute.

He went to primary school at Orana Catholic Primary School and Corpus Christie College. They're both Catholic Schools. I'm guessing maybe the McManus family was Catholic. It could be though that they believed Catholic schools provided the best education. It could also be that young Rove ended up having a lot of Catholic friends (because he went to Catholic school) and followed them to their Catholic High School.

In the early 1990's, McManus moved to Melbourne to be a stand-up comedian. I guess maybe this is a better place for stand-up comedians than Perth.

Lord Wiki doesn't go much into his career; the struggles of one trying to get into the entertainment business. He just kind of jumps ahead to 1997. McManus hosted a TV show for channel 31 which is for community television. The show, The Loft Live, lasted two years.

After that McManus did a show for the Nine Network; a late night variety type thing. It was called Rove. The Nine Network canceled it soon after it began. Then Network Ten took McManus in and let him do the show for them. The name was tweaked a little. It became Rove Live.

The show did well for awhile, but then in 2005 it became a bit less popular. Lord Wiki says on November 22, it had awfully low ratings. How sad. That's my birthday!

In that same year, McManus did a tour in Australia and New Zealand. While doing the tour, he'd return to the studio every Tuesday to film his show. Wow. That's dedication.

And through all that, his wife Belinda Emmet was fighting breast cancer. Well, no not exactly. I pictured the couple being married a long time and enduring the diagnosis together. But I guess it didn't work that way. She was diagnosed in 1998. She married McManus 29 January 2005; eight days after McManus' birthday. She died less than two years later.

After his wife died, McManus took an indefinite leave of absence. There were rumors he'd never return. But he came back five months later. The show was revamped at this time, and renamed. It went back to being just Rove.


The first new episode had very high ratings; the highest ratings the show has ever had. I have a feeling that's due to our attraction to drama and tragedy. I think perhaps people want to see what a mourning husband looks like when he returns to television. Maybe I'm being cynical though. It could be more about showing support. Welcome back! It could also be that once the show was gone, people realized they missed it.

Later that same year, McManus became a host of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Yeah. I'm barely smarter than my seven-year-old. I've actually never watched the show; American or Australian. We did buy the board game though. We haven't played it much.

Besides his TV shows, McManus also did some radio, and he played a crab in Finding Nemo. Really? Okay. I think I found the scene on YouTube.

McManus has won awards. It seems his big year was 2003. He won three Logies. Oh, and he also won a lot in 2004-2005. Then why did his ratings go down? Well, I guess that happens.

In 2008, Australian Nickelodeon's Kid Choice Awards chose him as biggest burper and best Aussie.

That's interesting. Does he do something specifically for kids, or do kids watch Rove?

Maybe they watch Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.
All right. I'm going to leave Lord Wiki now.


Here's the official website for the show.

Richard E. Grant is going to be on the show on the 21st (that will be past by the time I post this). I haven't heard his name in a long time! No wait. That's September 21 they were talking about. Or will they be on this coming September? I'm so confused. Are they advertising way ahead of time, or is this website not regularly updated?

THIS Sunday (April) the show has guests I've never heard of before. Well, Jason Mraz sounds kind of familiar. I think my Pandora Radio Station plays his stuff sometimes.

I'm going to look at IMDb now. Maybe there's some interesting stuff there.

They say his trademark is making jokes about himself being small and weak. Self-deprecating sense of humor. I like that.

He owns his own production company. In 2004, it's building burned down. Yikes.

He kissed a man name Bert Newton for charity.

He got married at a Catholic Church.  Mary Immaculate Church. So, I'm going to assume he IS Catholic. He didn't just go to those Catholic schools for the hell of it.

He breeds kangaroos; owns a kangaroo farm. He's trying to save the blue tailed kangaroo from extinction. I wonder how he got interested in that cause.

It seems he has a new woman in his life; actress Tasma Walton. They've been engaged since February 2008. Are they still together? Okay. Yes. They still are. They got together about a year after McManus's wife died. But they had been friends way before that.

Here's something funny, but also kind of sad. When McManus' wife died, Kim Beazley tried sending condolences. But Beazley ended up sending it to the wrong Rove. Oops! Oh yikes. And he sent it to someone friendly towards George W. Bush.  Karl Rove.

Oh cool! There's an Andrew Denton interview with McManus. This should be interesting to read.

When he was a teenager, McManus high-fived the pope. His Catholic School did a field trip to the airport to greet the pope on his Papal tour. The pope lifted up his hand for his traditional blessing. McManus gave him a high-five. I guess the pope didn't do one back. I wonder what the pope was thinking. Was he completely lost and bewildered? Offended? Amused?

Rove is not his real name. It's John. I wonder how why and how he chose the name Rove. Did he do this early on, or did he choose it as a stage name when he was an adult?

Okay. Maybe I should just read a little down further before getting all these questions in my brain. He didn't choose the name himself. It's what his sisters ended up calling him.

As a child he kept to himself a lot.

He liked climbing trees and drawing cartoons. He'd cut out his drawings and make little plays with them. That's very cute and imaginative.

Oh! I might have to add this man to my list of those I love. He loves parrots. I love parrots too. It's one of my favorite things about Australia.

When McManus was in year three, a teacher noticed his creativity and pointed it out to his parents. He said he worried that if McManus didn't have a good outlet for this creativity, he might eventually rebel. That sounds like a very good teacher to me. If only all kids had someone looking out for them like that.

McManus says he has a very close and happy family. He never had any teenage rebellion; no feelings that his parents didn't understand him. I hope Jack can end up saying the same for us. Maybe? Is it possible?

He talks about his first stand-up performances and how awful they went. People didn't listen. They talked amongst themselves. That's kind of inspiring....knowing that someone as successful as McManus had early failures.

McManus worked in the cruise industry. It seems his work schedule was quite easy-going....very different from what the waiters and waitresses have to endure.

He talks about falling in love with his wife. He says he thinks it happened on their first date.

He says when he won the Logies, no one from Channel Nine congratulated him. I guess they were embarrassed for firing him. That's a bit pathetic. I can maybe imagine them neglecting to congratulate if he was the one who quit. I can imagine being a bit resentful. But they're the ones to blame. They should step forward and say congratulations.

The whole thing reminds me a bit of Simon Cowell and Jennifer Hudson. Although at least he apologized.

I think though....I'd hate to be in that position of having to reject someone who might one day become really famous.


I'm sure all those people make mistakes at sometime.

Oh! Actually I was sort of in that position.

Tim wanted us to invest in a restaurant. I didn't want to really. But I ended up telling him it was his decision. I hated the idea of saying no and then learning that this restaurant became a big hit. I don't think I can handle that responsibility.

All right. Next....

Here's a fansite. I'm going to look at this. I think it has links to videos and stuff.

I'm watching a video now. McManus is really adorable, kind of like in a Michael J. Fox way. He just looks really sweet.

You know, I think I'm just going to YouTube and watch videos. Then it will be easier for me to link.

I just went downstairs to see Tim and Jack (before starting watching). Jack asked me who I'm researching today. He's so sweet and inquisitive. I love how he takes such interest in other people. He always wants to know who I'm researching, what book I'm reading, how my Sims are doing, etc.

Anyway, I told him I was in the middle of watching McManus interview Elmo. Jack jumped up excitedly. I want to see it!

So, now we're going to watch it together.

And here is McManus interviewing Kevin Clash--the voice of Elmo. Funny! Clash says he stopped telling people he does the voice of Elmo. Why? Once his daughter told someone at a store. They didn't believe her, so Clash did the voice. They weren't impressed, and still didn't believe. They said they could do the voice better. That's pretty funny.

Now I'm going to watch an interview with Daniel Radcliffe. No, wait it's not an interview. They just share a lovely kiss together. I guess maybe that's who he'd turn gay for. And if I was a Lesbian, he's probably one of those I'd turn straight for.

Oh! Here he's talking about our beloved Outback Steakhouse. Tracey, you have to watch this!!!

All right. I'm tired of watching videos.

I'll check out Google News. See what is happening currently to our man.

Ah! A few weeks ago, McManus won a Wildlife Warrior Award. That comes from the Irwin's Australia Zoo.

McManus is vice-president of Fauna and Flora International. I've actually never heard of them. But they sound like a good organization...another conservation one. I guess their name pretty much says it all.

Now I'm going to look at blogs. See if I can find anything juicy and exciting.

It seems so far, McManus is not a fan of Twitter. This blogger defends the Twittering world. Although I am on Twitter way too often, I probably side with McManus. I see it so far as a stupid thing I wish I wasn't so addicted to.

Tamaryn Tobian announces that McManus is doing a show for the US...The List. Maybe this is where the Outback clip comes from.

Eamon says he preferred McManus when he was on Channel Nine. I guess he feels the show jumped the shark when it switched networks. But I hear that about a lot of shows. Fans seem to like the beginning better.  And then they say things went downhill. I hear that about Lost. I remember hearing that about the X-Files......

Joe and Lou spotted McManus during their holiday to Melbourne!

Through various blogs, I learned that McManus is on Zoo Weekly's top 50 people we hate list. He's number 23; right next to George W. Bush. Really? Is this their opinion, or was it voted on? Why don't they like him?

Anyway, while looking for the original Zoo Weekly report, I found this website instead. It has a lot of facts about McManus. I think I looked at this website before, but I missed this page.

McManus fell of a mechanical coin-operated horse as a child.

When he was twelve, he appeared on a TV show called Kadoodle. I saw that mentioned on Enough Rope as well.

Like Jack, he once wanted to be a zookeeper! Jack's already over that plan though.

His favorite movie is It's a Wonderful Life. I like people who pick uplifting movies as their favorites. Although the last movie to uplift my spirit was a horror movie starring Will Smith. What does that say about me?

His favorite foods are pretzels and stone fruits. I wonder which of the stone fruits is his favorite. I think I like cherries the best, but peaches and plums are lovely as well.

Oh! This is sweet. He has a teddy bear he takes with him while he travels. It's kind of like Flat Stanley. He takes pictures of it in front of landmarks.

He owns a Sesame Street Fever album. I think we used to have that. My sister and I used to love the Disco Frog song.

Why does this entry have so many Sesame Street references?

I still want to know why Zoo Weekly listed McManus as a hated person. Well, maybe not. Judging from what I see, Zoo Weekly doesn't seem to be my type of thing. I think McManus is more my type.