Paul McDermott - Personal Life

Personal Life

McDermott was born in Adelaide, a fraternal twin and one of six children in a Catholic family. His father, John, was a senior public servant and his mother, Betty, a home manager. The family moved to Canberra when McDermott was three. He attended Marist College Canberra, where he describes himself as having been painfully shy and a "bit of a loner". After completing his ACT Year 12 Certificate at Dickson College, he attended the Canberra School of Art with the intention of becoming an artist. He describes painting as his first love, and still considers his final year piece at art school to be his finest work. Indeed, he only started performing at the age of 25 because he needed money to buy canvases. "It was either that or waiting on tables and I thought I'd soon get pissed off with people doing that," he says. Privately, McDermott maintains his interest in art through painting, drawing and hand-crafting books. He works under the alias of artist 'Young Master Paul'.

McDermott is a self-described atheist who says that his political leanings lie somewhere between ultra-conservative and the radical left "depending on the time of day". He has criticised the war on drugs and society's tendency to ignore the large drug subculture that involves people of all ages. "It's out there and it happens, but there's still a fear of talking about it," he says. "In cities like Manchester, with unemployment problems, there are no-alcohol venues where five thousand people under the age of sixteen are eccy'd off their heads every Saturday night."

He has one child, Xavier, with his partner Melissa Lyne.