Almanac Cinema: John Clarke – A Trans-Tasman Treasure

 

 

 

The late satirist, comic, writer and actor John Clarke sits comfortably amongst his peers as a giant. Sadly Clarke lost his life hiking in 2017 and as huge fans we mourned.

 

Now eight years on, his daughter Lorin has produced a loving tribute to her dad in the documentary But Also John Clarke.

 

We Australians tend to claim NZ artists like John (see Crowded House, Russell Crowe, Dragon, The Pavlova etc) but John was very much a genuine fifty/fifty Trans-Tasman.

 

His formative childhood and into his twenties was spent in NZ before he migrated to Melbourne.

 

He lived a mentally challenging childhood dealing with an antagonistic father struggling with his post WW2 PTSD. John also hated high school. Everything being taught was antiquated, staid and over officious and he found himself constantly being punished for misbehaviour.

 

He eventually was expelled and he took off working on farms for a time, before a laxity in admission requirements for university in NZ allowed him to enter academic life.

 

He studied everything from law to accounting before finally being removed for absenteeism! As John explains, he was only there for the arts and lifestyle. After years of authoritarianism at home and at school, John had finally found his peeps.

 

After university John developed the legendary character Fred Dagg, an hilarious take on NZ masculinity and ‘blokiness’. It would sustain him throughout the 70s on TV and recordings, one of which, Fred Dagg’s Greatest Hits became one of NZ’s biggest selling albums.

 

 

When the work dried up in NZ, John now disillusioned with where NZ TV was going, then made the move to Melbourne.

 

After some writing jobs, we first started seeing John on TV with The Gillies Report in the mid 80s but there is one memorable role John played whilst living in London for a short time in the early 70s. It’s in the film The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie, and it’s when Barry has a final pub booze up before leaving to go home to Oz.

 

My good mate The Senator knows it very well and I’m so glad Lorin has included it in the doco because if you blink you’ll miss it.

 

Everyone in the pub is drunk. It’s raucous, vile and full of testosterone. Barry is receiving plaudits as he moves through the crowd to get to the door and turns to the drunks with one last big “seeya later”.

 

Everyone reciprocates except John who gently brings his can of Fosters to his lips, skols and raises one finger from the hand holding the can in acknowledgment of Bazza’s departure. It’s this quality of understatement that would permeate through his entire career.

 

It’s hard to believe that John and Brian Dawe performed their satirical interviews for both Channel 9 and the ABC for over thirty years. According to Lorin, John wrote a minimum two sketches a week, often three over three decades. An extraordinary achievement.

 

When John’s hero Peter Cook came to Melbourne in 1987 to open the first Melbourne Comedy Festival, John gave Peter some of those sketches and with Peter’s encouragement he turned them into some of the funniest TV in Australian comedy history. It must have meant a lot to John to have had this confident advice from his idol.

 

 

Of course John would go on to make the iconic ABC series The Games a precursor to Working Dog’s Utopia.

 

 

There is a veritable who’s who in the doco providing rare insights into this humble man’s career. His best mate Sam Neill is terrific as are the NZ comedians where John is considered the Godfather of comedy.

 

My sister and her husband moved to a secluded part of Phillip Island with their three sons over thirty years ago to escape the city. They bought an old shop and returned it to its former glory.

 

John and his family have had a holiday home near the shop for about as long and my sister and her family have got to know the Clarkes quite well. They would also get regular visits from Sam Neill to the shop.

 

There were times I visited my sister, suddenly see John and ducked for cover, completely star struck and shy, except for once he caught me on one of his walks while I was leaving my sister’s place holding my daughter. He made some funny remark about my T shirt and I replied with something that was completely incomprehensible. Absolutely hopeless.

 

The reality is that John was incredibly patient, curious and kind so I had nothing to worry about. This is highlighted in the doco where one contributor mentions that it could take an hour to walk 100m down the street with John because he just chatted to everyone. My sister and her husband have said the same.

 

Not long after the shop opened, one of my nieces visited from Perth for the school holidays. Shelley was very gifted at writing, music and acting and was a big fan of John.

 

After a brief introduction John took her under his wing as a mentor, even taking her to the ABC studios in Melbourne to explain the production side of his work. Other comedians in the doco such as Shaun Micallef and Anne Edmonds also bring to life John’s selflessness.

 

John was a prolific reader and writer but it’s his humanity that stands out most of all.

 

I couldn’t help but liken him to our current Australian of the Year, Neale Daniher. The same sparkle and expressive eyes along with the cheeky grin.

 

We were privileged to have the searing intellect and joy that John brought to us over the years and Lorin has made a wonderful tribute to her Dad that the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

 

The film is part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Details and trailer below.

 

 

 

More from Ian Wilson can be read Here.

 

 

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