Behind the mask of Shaun Micallef

He’s normally very comfortable behind a performer’s ‘mask’ but on SBS’ new series Who Do You Think You Are?, Shaun Micallef allowed the cameras to catch him just being himself.

In the acclaimed genealogy series, the normally-wry host learns about his family history and uncovers facts that can’t be dismissed with a trademark punchline.

“It was an emotional trip for me because I’d never done anything like this before on camera. It’s quite unusual to see myself not performing,” he says.

“Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation is me but I just amp it up a little bit. This is more reflective and appropriate for the story being told, but I didn’t quite realise how revealing it would be when you take off the mask and take away the lines, there’s nowhere to hide.

“Even with radio there’s a sense of performing, but here you’re being observed. So you’re being rather than doing. It didn’t bother me that the cameras were around but it’s amazing what you reveal by simply not performing. It’s strange.”

Micallef had seen the UK original series, but not the Australian version, which returns for its fifth season.

“It’s a great way to look at your history, and a bit of a travelogue, and a nice chance to watch people you know in a slightly different context. So when they asked me to do it I said yes straight away and then I thought ‘Oh hang on, I’d better talk to mum and dad. What if we find something?’” he says.

“So I had a chat to them and they were just as interested in it as me.”

Contrary to popular belief, his roots are found largely outside of the UK, in Malta. Little detail was known about the family’s past, and Micallef opportunities to reveal more about the family’s past largely passed with the death of his great-grandmother, at the grand age of 99.

“I was about 15 when she died, and she’d been in a home so she wasn’t a great font of information so I only knew what I’d been told from my parents. They didn’t seem to know that much either. So we didn’t have to go back far to learn that things.

“My father is Maltese and came over here when he was about 15 with his family in the mid 50s. He was part of the great wave of immigration that occurred after the Great War. A great number of Maltese people came to Australia and I think they lost about half or two-thirds of their population (to emigration).

“Malta was a very important naval port for the Royal Navy during the Second World War and it was bombed by the Germans and the Italians. Dad always says ‘The Italians didn’t take it too seriously, they’d always just drop them in the ocean before they hit the land.’ But the Germans were a bit better at it and there wasn’t much left after the war so the family came here.”

There is also a curious explanation of how the Micallef surname was bestowed upon the family.

“My Great-great-great-grandfather didn’t have an ‘official’ father. His dad was a sailor in the port so my Great-great-great-grandmother gave him and us and me our surname, so she’s the Micallef and not the father. I found it fascinating that the name came from that side of the family,” he explains.

“Micallef is a very common name. It’s the equivalent of Smith in Malta.

“A lot of people think that with Shaun it’s got Celtic or Irish, but my first name is Anglicised. My mother for some reason, even though she’s got Irish blood in her, decided to spell it the English way.”

So misunderstood is his heritage, that in 2003 when filming the Micallef Tonight from Nine, he was asked to shoot a promo wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes.

“They said ‘You know, McAllef.’ They assumed I was Scottish. So I thought ‘I’m not going to argue with them.’ I thought it was funny so I just put it on,” he laughs.

Also featuring this season are Vince Colosimo, Michael O’Loughlin, Melissa George, Kerry O’Brien and John Wood.

Filming of the SBS series saw Micallef visit London, Turkey, Malta and Zurich across a 3 week period, but like most candidates he was kept in the dark about his destinations and what he would discover.

“It’s like Thank God You’re Here. They just put you on a plane. They said ‘Pack for really cold weather and really hot weather.’ And I had to give them my passport.

“You’re pushed into a country, driven to a building and they say ‘Go and talk to that lady over there’ and they don’t tell you anything else. So the reactions you see on the programme are very genuine.”

So did the acerbic TV host also find himself reduced to tears?

“It’s essential that you become teary on that particular programme. I’m pretty sure they’ve put some in using CGI,” he jokes.

“I was also a bit embarrassed about wanting to find some sort of pre-cursor to myself: a writer or a performer or someone who was funny. It wasn’t that important to me, I don’t think I needed that sort of validation. I think it’s a bit vain of people to want to see some version of themselves in the past. I’d much rather see someone a bit more interesting.

“My great fear was that we were all a bit dull and I wouldn’t find anyone interesting.

“Hopefully we did find some interesting people but they were more occupied with staying alive and not starving or being blown up. So they had more important things to do than being stupid and making people laugh. But I guess they needed a sense of humour to see the day through.”

Who Do You Think You Are? returns 7:30pm Tuesday on SBS ONE.