I was devasted to hear of the death of Richard Marsland. He was not just one-third of the greatest Australian comedy team of recent years, but a man of great potential. That we will never know what he was really capable of is as sad as anything else about his death. - Bean Is A Carrot

	I'm sure if Richard were here today, he'd say, "Hi, I'm Richard, and my favourite song is 'I Love Rock & Roll' by Britney Spears, because she's so BRAVE and PRETTY! Do you like Beyonce?" - samadriel

	Richard Marsland was the only decent person left in Australian commercial radio. He was a brilliant commedian and he also seemed like the nicest bloke you could ever meet. Every piece he did was champagne comedy comparable to the likes of Tony Martin and Shaun Micallef. What's worse is that he had so much potential. The last glimmer of hope for commercial radio has disappeared never to return and it's so sad to think how much talent has gone to waste. It really makes you think, it's just not fair, it's too soon Rich. Farewell Ricky M. - Tim Lambert

	Part of the reason Get This worked so well was the curious dynamic which developed throughout the two series. Although probably initially conceived as a 'Tony Martin Show' - featuring Ed Kavalee as "second banana", the aquisition of Richard Marsland soon drove this towards something else entirely, eventually evolving into a three-way "family" set-up, with Martin effectively playing father figure to his two battling sons - the wayward, facile, "Yeah, whatever" Kavalee forever pitted and slyly plotting against Marsland, the more-sensible "older brother"! The constant suggestion from both Kavalee and Martin that this ridiculously friendly and personable chap was on a fearless, unstoppable quest to covet, oust and replace his industry competitors at all costs simply wouldn't have been funny without the subsequent smiling shrug of shoulders and "Well, what can I say?" from the accused. At this moment, Tony, Ed and Richard should be in a studio recording a commentary track for the Meat Pie DVD (whether it gets released or not). At this moment we should all be looking forward to Series 4 of Get This and hoping it was as great as Series 3. At this moment, Richard Marsland should still be alive. - Champniss

	R.I.P. Ricky M - Denbigh Morris

The recent death of Richard Marsland shocked and saddened many. He was funny, smart, and full of promise. What's more he loved comedy, knew a great deal about it and was supportive of anyone who tried to do it.

Friends, family, colleagues, even people who only met the guy once or twice, have all commented on his generous and humble nature. One such person is blogger David M. Green, who interviewed Marsland for community station Radio Adelaide in 2007. Soon afterwards Green landed a panelling job at SA-FM, a role once occupied by Marsland.

In July 2008 Green visited Melbourne for a short holiday with his girlfriend Jemima and contacted Marsland, asking if they could hook up. In a blog tribute to Marsland, he wrote:

	Richard was nice enough to agree to meet me, and he bought lunch for me and Jemima at one of those Melbourne alley cafes....We talked for about 2 hours about all sorts of stuff; radio, comedy, writing, TV, old sketches from Get This. Eventually Jemima left out of boredom. - David M. Green, blogger.

Even us here at the Australian Tumbleweeds received a supportive message from Marsland on MySpace in 2007. "Love your work and am very much looking forward to the awards this year" he said.

"The absolute suck", we thought, "He just wants to make sure Get This wins Best Comedy again!" We read on.

"Bugger me, I'm sorry about the spam that's been coming from my account." We didn't mind. "I feel a fool." He wasn't. "I swear it's not me." We knew it wasn't. "I'm endeavouring to sort the salty critter out and hopefully it shan't happen again." That was nice, but we'd all been attacked by those MySpace spambots. "I'm a Myspace eejit" he concluded. Having seen his profile design, we had no arguments there.

He ended his message by recommending we use the song 'Tumblin' Tumbleweeds' by The Sons of the Pioneers as our theme music. "It can be heard in the opening titles of The Big Lebowski, and it's a belter." he continued. "But for my money, you can't beat Mr Bennett!"

"Hope this finds you tumblin'. Thanks, Richard"

Here was a guy who'd worked his way through more than 10 years of community radio, local radio, local television and local newspapers, before finally getting to work on national shows like Tough Love, The Shebang, The Glasshouse, Newstopia, Rove, and, of course, Get This, and he was praising us, despite the fact that we'd slagged-off a great number of shows he'd worked on. He then apologised for a minor inconvenience, offered advice and finally thanked us for, well, pretty much nothing. Almost no one who's been even half as successful as him in the media ever does any of those things. He was either that big white-anter that Tony Martin joked he was, or the nicest guy in radio. We've concluded the later.

What we liked best about Richard Marsland, though, was that he was funny. Properly funny. He was prepared to do whatever it took to get good, quality laughs. In his 20s he'd sneak off to Melbourne for the weekend to get experience doing stand-up. At SA-FM he used any opportunity he had to write sketches and come up with funny jingles. When he and Anne Wills had to get under a doona on AM Adelaide he loosened his trousers and stood up revealing his bare legs, shouting "Willsy, you're all hands!" She collapsed in gales in laughter.

He filled his Sunday Mail columns with bad puns and numerous references to pop music and classic films. On Get This he wrote and honed his material, sometimes for weeks, before letting it loose on air. On Restoring The Balance he took great delight in sending-up the finer points of Adelaide's wackier evangelical churches. And on Pete & Myf he turned yet another breakfast radio show where a guy and a girl go through the papers and says stuff, into a show worth listening to, simply for the sketches he contributed.

Richard Marsland infused even the most banal shows he worked on with his sly wit. That he could get away with filthy lines on AM Adelaide or cutting attacks on the industry he worked in was all down to his charm and his genuine courtesy and niceness.

Appropriately, his first professional acting role, at the age of 14, was Class Wag in the Morris Gleitzman-penned children's drama More Winners: Second Childhood. It's not hard to work out what kind of child he must have been to get that part, because he had that childlike glint in his eyes when he told a gag as an adult. Comedy wasn't something he got into one day, it ran through his veins.

One day we hoped he'd make it to TV with his own series, a sitcom in which we finally discovered how Richard Marsland lived his life. Anyone still wondering need only read the numerous tributes from friends, family, fans and peers; he lived it well.

Depression and anxiety can affect anyone, anywhere, at any time. Please donate in Richard Marsland's name to Beyond Blue.

Richard Marsland Lives.