A film review: But Also John Clarke

But Also John Clarke is a worthy tribute to one of Australasia’s great comedy figures. It’s a touching look at a much-loved husband and father, an insightful examination of the forces that shaped him and an always welcome retrospective covering some of the funniest material of the last 40 years. Frankly unmissable – five stars.

And with that out of the way, onto the actual discussion.

All of the above is 100% accurate, by the way. If you have any interest in the work of John Clarke – and if you don’t, please show yourself to the nearest exit – then it’s a must-see, both for the extensive clips and narration featuring the man himself, and also for the sensitive and compelling fashion in which director Lorin Clarke has put it all together. It’s an interesting documentary about an interesting person, which is a pretty rare thing at the best of times.

But for comedy nerds, the questions are slightly different. Backstory and tributes can only get you so far: where’s the obscure clips we’ve come to see? In Clarke’s case, so much of his career was firmly in the spotlight right from the start that “obscure” means something slightly different.

Usually it means “stuff that’s fallen off the radar” – Bob Franklin’s numerous works for pay TV in the 90s, for example. Here it largely means “stuff that isn’t all that important in the scheme of things”. This is a look back at a very popular comedian: if you’re a fan, you’ve probably seen a lot of this before, and can think of a lot of other things they didn’t have time to include.

It’s also, as you’d expect from a film with a lot of NZ funding, very much focused on Fred Dagg – it’s at least a quarter of the film, and possibly close to a third. Australian comedy fans might be a bit less interested, but it’s also the part of the film where Clarke’s career has some real shape to it. He came from nowhere, became a star / made enemies, and the whole thing got so big he had to leave town and start again elsewhere.

Because this is basically a salute / retrospective with some family insights scattered throughout, it hits pretty much all the high points without having much room for the quirkier corners. Clarke was turning up in every local sitcom for a while there, from Welcher & Welcher to Kath & Kim, but his supporting roles in other people’s efforts – aside from his star turn in Death in Brunswick – are largely left out. Fans of his work playing the same character he always did – only now he’s evil – in Crackerjack, bad news… though there is a photo of Mick Molloy here at one stage so keep your chin up.

There’s also not a whole lot about his work on The Gillies Report, which is a bit of a shame. Farnarkling does get a decent look, but there’s a bit of a feeling overall that The Gillies Report was something of a dead end – it’s not like Clarke did that kind of thing again, and here Gerry Connelly gets as much air time as Max Gillies, which is definitely a statement of some kind.

The political interviews Clarke & Dawe did for close to three decades obviously get their fair share of love, with appearances from various ABC staffers (and Jana Wendt) to provide a bit of behind-the-scenes colour. Their bumping from the actual (then) 7.30 Report to a stand alone slot, or their dumping from A Current Affair suggest not everyone behind the scenes were big fans; we don’t expect this kind of doco to name names, but now that Clarke & Dawe are safely in the rear view mirror it certainly seems like the bumps have been smoothed out in the official history.

As a bunch of cranks, we’d love someone to take a closer look at his legacy – not just in New Zealand (which this does to some extent), but in Australia, where you’d have to say the picture is far less rosy. Do we need to point out once again that the ABC axed *all* their satirical content after the election of the Albanese government? Probably not, but we just can’t help ourselves.

So plenty of food for thought here. Clarke was clearly a unique talent – and a wonderful human being besides, unless you were an authority figure – and this is a worthy tribute to his life and works. Run, don’t walk to check it out on the big screen; just don’t complain to us that they didn’t show that clip from BackBerner where he played Peter Reith.