Myf... and all things nice

MYF WARHURST is the woman you want at your parties.

Her laugh will make you laugh, she has a good time, and she knows a lot about music.

This veteran of Spicks and Specks is on the telly at the moment with her series Nice, which takes a look at, and tries to relive the pleasing things of life.

There’s a lot of Myffy in the program, as she looks at Australia’s love affair with food, and idols and fashion.

Myf’s had a big run on the radio, and nine years on Spicks and Specks, so Nice is a new venture, but can you leave Spicks behind?

“Well we did nine years, and we did live shows afterwards as well,” Myf said.

“Then I took four months off to go overseas. So I don’t know what life without Spicks and Specks is like.”

“I’m hoping to work that out. Otherwise I’ll get pretty bored.”

The shooting schedule for Spicks was effectively six months on and six off, leaving the main contributors free to do other things, as well as the live shows. That’s all over now.

“Come the start of next year I’ll really feel it and miss the boys,” Myf said.

“A big, gaping hole in my life.

“Mind you we’re very close, I saw Alan last week and I stayed in Hillsy’s apartment when I travelled.”

Myf said her time on the show was fantastic as she met many of her childhood idols, and the show was a lot of fun to do.

“We didn’t need to do homework as such, because all we knew was who the guests would be. There were plenty of surprises.”

Myf took time out to see London and fell in love with it, leaving her wanting to do more overseas trips in the future.

Back in Melbourne, and Myf is able to catch up with Nice, screening on ABC1 on Wednesday evenings.

“It was my idea to do the show, and originally it was going to be a serious documentary series on, basically, bad art,” Myf said.

“Focussing on the things we grew up with wondering if they were really any good.

“So it was going to be bad music, bad photography and the like. But I realised if we called it bad, nobody would watch it.

“So we changed it and came up with Nice. People can think ‘oh, that’s nice’, but they’re not sure how they feel about them.”

So the premise is an art show about the popular arts and the things that surrounded Australians when they were growing up.

“Through the personal journey of doing the show I realised some of the stuff has stuck, it’s quite good, some of it’s still bad of course,” Myf said.

“It’s been a lovely experience.

“I think my story is universal in that sense, people can relate to it. It’s pretty normal. The show can really hit a nerve.”

Myf is pleased the show is not offending people, and perhaps it will even encourage them to think in a different way about things.

“People often question someone’s personal taste, without really looking at how they’ve arrived at the decision.”

The show has looked at family photos, food and music, and next Wednesday focuses on fashion.

Nice... and trendy.

“Horrific, can I just say that,” Myf said.

“I need say no more than debutante balls. Every country town has one.

“In the next show I expose my deb photo... it is horrific. Part of why I hate it is because I wasn’t allowed to have a perm.”

In a time when all the other girls had one, this was a bit tough for Myf.

“We look into the history of the perm, and work out why at that time Australia was fascinated with them.

“To say nothing of the oversized jumpers with Australiana. Jenny Kee’s Koala was a particular favourite at the time.”

Myf has a word with Jenny in the show discussing the cyclical nature of fashion. Twenty-five years is said to be the timespan, and Jenny Kee is back in vogue proving the point.

“That’s good for the artist, they copped a lot of flak because they were so bold,” Myf said.

Myf comes across in interview just as the Myf you see on television, she laughs openly and freely and says what she thinks with humour.

“It’s what I do,” she said.