Billy Birmingham

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

He was the writer of the pun-laden comedy hit "Australiana" which was made famous by performer Austen Tayshus and reached No. 1 on the Australian charts in 1983.

In 1984 he released his first record as The Twelfth Man, an EP entitled 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 satirising 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.

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."

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