Rove McManus is talking about Mango and Crush.
Not the slushie variety, but the two resident Macaws that swoop around the foreshore and the playground at Bronte Beach – two of his favourite spots to hang out with four-year-old daughter, Ruby.
“I got their back story,” he says sipping a macchiato along the Bronte café strip, talking of the majestic birds.
“Someone else owns them, but this guys who trains them is like a dog walker for giant exotic parrots. You know the people who are not locals because they are the ones marvelling at them. One of them is okay with people, but I think it’s Crush who is the grumpy one.”
Bird nerd-ery aside. Perth born, long time Melbourne then LA resident and now eastern suburbs local McManus, 44, has come full circle. After years of global roaming and personal heartache, his family is now complete, settled in Bronte, and he couldn’t be more content.
With the new show he is hosting, Show Me The Movie! premiering on Ten last week, the triple Gold Logie winning television presenter and his wife, actor Tasma Walton have found themselves thrust back in the limelight
He admits he’s not sure how he’ll handle the paparazzi lenses camping out on his lawn this time round.
“I struggle with it. I don’t know if its still as bad as it used to be. Tasma and I talk about the fact we feel we’re boring people now. We feel there’s nothing more to give. Our tabloid story is over. We’re now happily married with a little girl. That’s it. There’s no more. We’re one and done. No more babies!
“You raise a child at 40,” he laughs tellingly it’s not an easy thing to do – it keeps you fit! I’ll say that. As far as the tabloids go there’s far more interesting people to make up lies about it.”
He says making people feel good is why he got in the game not fame.
“I don’t feel the need to be funny. I’m thankfully not one of those people who craves the attention – it’s just a by product of what I do.
“I like entertaining. I like making people feel good. It’s not for the adulation. It’s not for the fame. It’s not a stepping stone, I do it because I want to make someone’s day a little better,” he says recalling how one night he and a friend performed to a crowd of one just because the bloke needed cheering up.
“As wonderful as it is to get the recognition and acknowledgement and appreciation for what you do – I’m quite equally happy to get it from someone who walks up and says ‘hi, I really love what you do’ as I am to get a Logie and put it on the shelf.
For one of the producers of Show Me The Money!, the brains behind Bondi Rescue, Ben Davies – who has been working on the concept for years with Spicks and Specks creator Paul Clarke – Rove was the only choice to host.
“In Australia you could only count on one hand the people capable of this role…Rove seemed like a natural fit,” says Davies who admits he was always a fan but now, after seeing him in action, shakes his head in wonder.
“I never really understood what it took to helm one of these shows – but when you see Rove doing it – it’s kind of like he’s got three brains all working at once. He’s got an ear piece for guidance from the control room, he’s listening to the panellist he’s talking to and he’s cracking jokes at the same time – and he’s running traffic control on the floor as well. It’s sublime – you need to need to be more than charismatic you need to be funny, charismatic and incredibly smart – I’ve never seen anyone who does it quite like him. We walk off the floor and say ‘wow’. He’s unique.”
A self confessed “factoid” McManus says while he’s full of “dumb facts people don’t know” and holds the Guinness World Record for being able to identify animals by sound only in a minute – none of it impresses his little girl.
“You know what impresses a four-year old? It’s funny voices. When you ask her who you want to read you a story tonight and she says ‘Dad because he does the voices’ – that’s what matters most.
“Which is fine for me because I love doing the voices and I’m very happy to indulge.
You get the impression Rove is good time dad, his kid-like wonder making him a perfect playmate for a toddler his pre-schooler.
“I’m awesome time dad!” he laughs at the suggestion. “I have the same appreciation. It’s nice to have a child to justify looking at life the same way. I think bubbles are awesome. You dip a stick in shampoo solution and you make bubbles by blowing it with your breath and the sun hits and you can make a rainbow inside. But I can be firm when I have to. And because I’m good time Dad, when I’m disappointed at something it has double the resonance.”
His daughter is cheeky, not only sharing his clumsiness but his sense of humour. “She’s very funny and she has wonderful comic timing. Plus, she’s clumsy. But then so am I. If Tasma is on one side of the house and she hears a cry – she’ll call out which one is that? And we’re both usually fine.”
Asked what goals he has left to kick, Rove is contemplative, utterly appreciative of his backyard, his suburb and his family in a way only a man who has been through a lot can be.
“She’s too good,” he says of his wife Tasma’s acting abilities. “It’s wonderful. To look at what she does and just marvel at it. She looks at what I do and thinks its magic. She doesn’t understand the idea of getting up and telling jokes in front of strangers that just terrifies her. And I enjoy that. I like that she still sees the magic in it. I do the same thing. I am captivated when I watch her. I think she is one of the best in the biz. Granted I’m biased. But I thought that before we were even really friends.”
The couple are coming up to their 10th wedding anniversary next year.
“Let’s say we do (have big plans),” he laughs. “We probably should. We’ve done Africa. We’ve done The Amazon. We’ve had the good fortune of being able to travel the world and see many great places and we look forward to being able to do that with Ruby too – at the same time we live in such a great part of the world here in Sydney it’s great you can step outside your door you can go to the Bogey Hole here and on the right day see a wealth of sea creatures crawling in and out of the rocks pools.
“Put your head under water and you would be stunned at what’s swimming underneath! You could dive in here and see a giant blue groper. And the amount of times they are there – you would be surprised with how incredible your own backyard is. I’m very pleased that we take every opportunity to enjoy that.”
The couple bought their five bedroom Bronte beach house in 2016 (for $6.4 million) after almost a decade in LA. Both grew up in WA and Tasma had been a “Bronte girl” since she left home.
There was no question 2024 was the postcode they wanted to settle into as as a family and they were prepared to wait, spending a year searching for their jewel in the highly coveted market.
“We had a day we were walking along the shore here in Bronte – standing overlooking the sea baths and the cliffs and I turned to Tasma and said; ‘we’ll get a place here; I promise you we’ll get a place here’. I had no way of guaranteeing that would happen, maybe it would be when we were 65 or something – but it did and we’re happy about that. It feels nice we’re able to put some roots down instead of being all over the place.”
They talk about their daughter growing up a Bronte girl.
“As much we talk about WA – this is her home. She will have no recollection of living in LA and probably be very mad she will have no recollection of visiting Disneyland – but she will grow up a Bronte girl.”
He’s such a local (Huxton’s and Pure Bronte as two of his favourite eateries) he also knows the name of the sea turtle at Gordon’s Bay. For the record it’s Andrew.
“I love the Bronte to Coogee walk and Gordon’s Bay I love, there’s a snorkelling spot that is one of my favourite places in the world to disappear, it’s great!” he says of his happy place admitting it’s “lovely” that no one can find him underwater.
“I saw a juvenile green sea turtle once, which I found out was released from Taronga Zoo after I posted it on Instagram. It had a tracker on his back and they had let it go. His name is Andrew and it was a beautiful experience. I always take an underwater camera so I took some shots and video and then I said to myself ‘put the camera away and appreciate the fact you are swimming with a sea turtle’ so I did that for about two minutes before I got tangled in a blue bottle. And that was my day done!”
It’s as if Bronte is his soul food.
“Just being alive. I like to think glass half full. And as a planet were not as messed up as it appears on the surface. We’re all chasing our tails about, worrying too much what everybody else has and what we don’t have instead of appreciating what you do have.
I like the idea of waking up and going ‘I’m healthy, I have a family, I love them, they love me. Apparently I’m pretty awesome with my voices reading stories.
“You look out at this beautiful beach with the sun twinkling off the waves and the stunning cliffs here – and you just think ultimately nothing much matters – however much everybody is spending on our houses and our clothes, tweeting away and instagramming this.
While animals may be his “jam” the man of many hats; comedian, late night talk show host, producer of The Project, radio presenter and amateur doodler (it’s in his blood – he studied art at school, toyed with the idea of being a cartoonist and is related to John Sparrow whose sketchbook sits in the State Library alongside one of the pages of the dead sea scrolls – but that’s a story for another day) says he been blessed professional and personally to meet most of the people he grew up idolising among them are Billy Connolly and Sir Richard Attenborough – his conservation hero.
“If another asteroid comes and wipes us all out like the dinosaurs this will all still be here. The waves will all still be here. The cliffs will all still be here. They were all still here long before we arrived and they will be here long after we’ve gone. So that’s the kind of stuff I appreciate – is just the planet that we have. the fact we get to sit here and appreciate it makes me feel pretty special. And that I have another day to get up and just go ‘yeah this is a very fortunate life I have’.”
“One of the things I love about being in Bronte is there’s beautiful Bankisas, they bring in Lorikeets and black cockatoos and even the fruit bats will come in, I love it. Our neighbours are chopping two of these 50 to 60 years old to Banksias – for us we’re just watching it happen and were heartbroken,” he says of his shared passion wife Tasma.
McManus, Sir David Attenborough and Stephen Fry are the three international Vice Presidents of the world’s oldest conservation organisation, Fauna & Flora International, dedicated to protecting our planet’s threatened wildlife and habitats, based out of Cambridge in the UK.
“Sir David and I have lunched and I got to nerd out,” says McManus excitedly. “That was an experience, a wonderful experience. When he turns around and he says to you: ‘you know a lot have you studied zoology?’ and you reply ‘no Sir David it’s from watching you’ – well that’s a little pinch me moment!
“Then he hung shit on me for how many writers I had working on my show. At the time probably about 10 or something. ‘I just have me,’ he said. Alright touché!
Its was love at first sight for rove abnd myself – hthere was a comedy rtoom elbow grease which featured a lot of the comins you see on tv – reg bill rove myself will anderson merrica nd rosso dave hughs corinne grant meshel richie – i remember doing a spot there quite early on in my carerr and got a tap on my shoulder and it wa rove who i ahad seen before that was really great lets hava drink. Had a couple of beersd out the back it was like a first date – i wwere married at first sight! No no still hapiily maried- aimedically hes been a great friend ever since then – we became really fast friends started doing sotuff togethe r- he was doing community tv channel 31 i became involce what we did ten years on him at a desk and me stiing next tio him and sdoing sketches and when the networks came calling he took me along – he remaine the same guy all along – despite beocing one of the biggest names nin aust enter – techniolcally ws my nboss and technically stil is – never made me feel like that was the case. Could be potentially tricky,
He is a retty rivate guy adn thants the one thing that changed over the years – diffuclut periods in his life – he is essemtailly loyal – he does have a really close circle of freinds and fmaily who he really tresusts and if your oin that cicrcl and i think i am you really feel hes got youyr back and he enjoys others success which isnt alwasy the way in this industry and hes been extremely supportive of those he cares aout. He is bloody hilarious. His sense of humour ios often dark as – compared to what we see on ..based in serepar states certainle whenver were in town – we caught up late last year down at the rocks at a chinese resta best few hours catching up – gtalking about families and life laughing alot over whiskeys – went from seeing eachother every day for ten years to him moving overseas and it was moving to sydney iwhenevr we do cacth up iots picking up where we left off.
I knew there would be the right tv gig for him – alwasy a bit frustrated and suprised it hasnt come round sooner i think the timing is right – perfect guy to host the show… perfect vehicle for him he loves his moveis and being around movie people. Hes one of the great..iim during
