JAMES SCHLOEFFEL
James Schloeffel is the brains behind The Shovel, a satirical website he created in 2012 in response to the growing need for a serious, dedicated space to make fun of Tony Abbott. The Shovel has since grown to become one of Australia’s most popular comedy websites.
During the 2016 US elections James founded “Aussies for Trump” – a satirical supporter group which travelled to Trump rallies. Unfortunately Trump fans took the concept seriously. In the same year he also unsuccessfully tried to sell Clive Palmer’s dinosaur collection on Gumtree.
In 2020 James co-wrote and performed in the hugely successful War on 2020 video series, including the sketch ‘QAnon Anonymous’ and Margaret and David’s iconic review of the year. Unfortunately he’ll be most remembered as the idiot man in the ‘Contact Tracies’ sketch.
James has also written and performed in a number of live comedy shows including The Anti Experts Guide to Everything, the annual The War On series and Spin, a masterclass about the ancient art of bullshitting.
James has written or co-written a number of books including The Complete True History of Australia, The Official Guide to the 2019 Election and seven editions of The Shovel Annual. He’s also a regular contributor to AFR’s Power Issue.
In a previous life, James worked as a copywriter, gained a degree in Economics and was once an extra in a direct-to-DVD movie starring Kylie Minogue. Although the less said about that the better.
CHARLES FIRTH
Charles Firth is a co-founder of The Chaser, inventor of the decimal system and the co-host of The Chaser Report, a top-30 Australian podcast.
Charles is author of the bestselling non-fiction narrative, American Hoax (Picador, 2006). He is currently managing editor of The Chaser website.
Charles has produced television comedy for almost two decades. He was executive producer of ABC-TV's daily news satire show The Roast and the comedy documentary Mr Firth Goes to Washington (nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy Logie). Before that he was the US correspondent for the Logie winning The Chaser's War on Everything. He was a presenter and writer on CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Election Chaser. In 2020, he produced, and co-wrote The War on 2020 online series.
In recent years, Charles has starred in several live shows, including The Chaser's Australia, The Anti-Expert’s Guide to the Pandemic and Spin (2022).
Each year, he and James tour with a number of other satirists with The War on the Year, satirical year in review show.