• Source: Billy Birmingham

Billy Birmingham (born 18 January 1953) is an Australian humorist and sometime sports journalist, most noted for his parodies of Australian cricket commentary in recordings under The Twelfth Man name.




Early career


He wrote the pun-laden comedy hit "Australiana", which was made famous by performer Austen Tayshus and reached No. 1, ultimately becoming the most successful single on the Australian charts in 1983.




The Twelfth Man



In 1984 he released his first record as The Twelfth Man, titled "It's Just Not Cricket". This went on to become his most successful series of recordings, with eight albums being released between 1987 and 2006. The premise involved Birmingham impersonating and satirizing the Channel Nine cricket commentary team, particularly Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and Tony Greig.
During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Birmingham also recorded a series of mock-commentaries on Olympic events as the Wired World of Sports, featuring such characters as the American track-and-field representative "Chuck DeWobblee" ("chucked a wobbly" – meaning to throw a tantrum) and the Ukrainian pole-vaulter "Olga Bedjanodgonnagedova" ("bet you're not gonna get over"), while also releasing the single under the 12th Man name, "Bruce 2000", featuring an impersonation of famed commentator Bruce McAvaney during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Birmingham has commented on his relationship with Richie Benaud, stating that he was kind when meeting with him, but a problem he had with his albums was the amount of obscenities he used when impersonating him, and that he thought it didn't reflect him personally. He has also stated that his favorite person to impersonate was Richie Benaud, as well as stating that over the years that things associated with the 12th Man have become conflated with Richie Benaud. Specifically, the 12th Man's interpretation of Benaud's Two for twenty two phrase, saying that Benaud never said that—apart from when it was the score.




The Back Page


In 1997, Birmingham joined as a regular guest on the panel discussion show The Back Page, alongside host Mike Gibson. Ironically, Gibson was sent up by Birmingham in 1987 on his Twelfth Man album Wired World of Sports.
Birmingham is famous for being able to find humour amid the hyperbole of world sport. Following Michael Clarke's debut innings of 151 against India in 2004, there was considerable praise for him – including comments that the young man was the new Donald Bradman and that he should captain Australia. Birmingham announced on The Back Page that he was going to nominate Clarke for Australian of the Year: "He's just that good."
A skilled impersonator, Birmingham is also used on the show as a means of interviewing a sporting celebrity who is otherwise unavailable. His impression of Australian rugby union coach Eddie Jones following the decision to award a Super Rugby franchise to Perth was a prime example of this, even to the point that another panelist held Birmingham's left eyebrow in place in order to have him look like the man he was pretending to be. At one point, Birmingham even began an impression of Gibson, which he quickly ceased performing, upon deciding (tongue-in-cheek) that it might endanger his career. He also is well known for spontaneously impersonating Richie Benaud during discussions about cricket, having once said during a debate about Twenty20 cricket, "Why not twenty-two overs for the two sides?" (taking advantage of Benaud's characteristic pronunciation of the letters T and S). In the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup, Birmingham also frequently adopts the distinctive high-pitched voice of a jockey.
Birmingham is also known for his ability to cover up any ignorance he might have of players' names by creating new ones in keeping with the country in question. For example, a discussion about the New Zealand national rugby league team collapsed into laughter when Birmingham praised, among others, the performance of "the centre, Waisiwerina Silitupe" ("Why's he wearing a silly toupee?").
In December 2012, Birmingham quit the show soon after Mike Gibson's departure, with the incumbents on the show being Matt Shirvington and Tony Squires.




List of impersonations


Personalities he has mimicked include:

Tony Barber
Jimmy Barnes
Darren Beadman
Richie Benaud
David Boon
Allan Border
Ian Botham
Geoff Boycott
Don Bradman
Gordon Bray
James Brayshaw
Billy Brownless
George W. Bush
Ken Callander
Bob Carr
Greg Chappell
Ian Chappell
Bill Clinton
Dennis Commetti
Ben Cousins
Colin Croft
Hansie Cronje
Robert DiPierdomenico
Darrell Eastlake
John Farnham
Jeff Fenech
Brendan Fevola
Danny Frawley
Gary Freeman
Bob Fulton
Sunil Gavaskar
Jack Gibson
Mike Gibson
Adam Gilchrist
Graham Gooch
Phil Gould
David Gower
Tony Greig
Michael Gudinski
Osher Gunsberg
Ian Healy
Michael Holding
Andrew Johns
Alan Jones
Eddie Jones
Jeff Kennett
Imran Khan
Bill Lawry
John Laws
David Leckie
Wally Lewis
Dennis Lillee
David Lloyd
Garry Lyon
Justin Madden
Rod Marsh
Ray Martin
Greg Matthews
Ian Maurice
Norman May
Bruce McAvaney
Jarrod McCracken
Alan McGilvray
Eddie McGuire
Javed Miandad
Erin Molan
Rex Mossop
Mike Munro
Sam Newman
Mark Nicholas
Simon O'Donnell
Frank Packer
Kerry Packer
John Platten
Peter Pollock
Ricky Ponting
Steve Roach
Sandy Roberts
Roy and HG
Yvonne Sampson
Barry Sheene
Michael Slater
Ken Sparkes
Keith Stackpole
Karl Stefanovic
Peter Sterling
Ken Sutcliffe
Johnny Tapp
Mark Taylor
Jeff Thomson
Tony Trabert
Kostya Tszyu
Frank Tyson
Paul Vautin
Andrew Voss
Jim Waley
Max Walker
Doug Walters
Shane Warne
Ray Warren
Mark Waugh
Steve Waugh
Neville Wran
Former Australian Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, and Kevin Rudd
Plus many other iconic people.




Other


Birmingham has also used his impersonation skills on advertisements for KFC, which appeared on Channel Nine's cricket coverage in the summer of 2002/03.
He also worked on Sydney radio station 2GB 873 alongside Andrew Moore and fellow long-time The Back Page panelist Mike Gibson.




References






External links


The12thMan

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