If you don’t know the name Rove McManus, you weren’t watching or even aware of television in the naughties. He was a guest presenter of Good Morning Australia and The Project, as well as presenter of the game show Are You Smarter than a 5^th Grader, and yet none of those job titles seem to mean much, regardless of their CV stature. What made McManus so beloved was his stint as the host of his own talk show Rove Live – later with a new time slot and format shift, simply titled Rove.

Despite the Fringe guide suggesting Tonight’s Guest: Rove McManus (tales from the talk show trenches) might resemble a reverse talk-show format, placing the audience as interlocutor and Rove as the guest (questions ranging from ‘If you were ever asked to go on Big Brother, would you?’ because he said the contestants were his worst guests, to ‘Of all your guests, did you think Tom Gleeson was the best?’, asked by a not very well disguised Gleeson sneaking in late), the show is actually a stand-up comedic memoir with audience questions tacked on at the end. Complete with live footage, it’s the trip down memory lane that makes up the bulk of the show and the best of the show.

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Somehow still looking as young and fit as ever, Rove McManus has been in the business for thirty years – and he mentions it more than once. Fair enough, he’s paid his dues, being shuffled from one network to the next, from one country to another – and the people he’s interviewed in the process! Robin Williams, Will Ferrell, David Bowie, Jennifer Lopez – can any Australian talk show host claim anything even close to that?

While Tonight’s Guest’s aim is to tell those behind-the-scenes stories of his years in the biz – like accidentally shaming John Travolta or seeing the puppet Elmo’s performer on a creeper between his legs because it was the only way to get Elmo close enough for a hug from the talk show host – he teases his audience by leaking one celebrity at a time as part of a top-five favourite list. Not wanting to ruin it, I’ll only tell you they’re not all American. And Elmo is one.

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McManus is a clean comic. He’s safe and sweet and his hero is Bert Newton, so hearing him call Bea Arthur a moll is hilarious. I mean, let’s just sit here and imagine that for a second, because if your favourite pastime is sitting in doctors’ waiting rooms reading celebrity gossip mags – no matter how old they are – because you’re completely curious about anything anyone has to say about some gorgeous, famous, fancy, rich folk who graces film and television screens, you’ll love being welcomed into this feel-good talk-show gossip session. And the family archival footage he shows at the beginning, of him ‘telling’ his first joke through a gleeful, vulgar action, really caps it all.

Glitz and glamour aside, he’s still the nicest guy around. And when he’s telling stories that make him smile, that make him laugh, the audience is smiling and laughing, too.

Tonight’s Guest: Rove McManus (tales from the talk show trenches) is playing at Le Cascadeur at The Garden of Unearthly Delights until March 15