The best thing you can say about a tribute show like John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time, a show which ideally wouldn’t exist because we’d rather John Clarke was still with us, is that it made us want to re-watch various John Clarke shows. It was only half-an-hour, and it was put together in a week, but it was a great tribute to a great man.
Remember The Gillies Report? We don’t, but it looks like it was heaps of fun and would be worth a watch. Happily, there’s a heap of it on YouTube.
What about The Fast Lane – a show that comedians who watched it at the time rave about, but never seems to get released on DVD. Oh well, someone’s put it all on YouTube. Yes, all of it!
How about Death in Brunswick? You can stream it online for not much money.
There are also loads of things available from John Clarke’s own website, including this excellent compilation of early Fred Dagg sketches and this Clarke & Dawe boxset which contains the best from A Current Affair and The 7.30 Report. Sadly not the footage of Jana Wendt laughing, though.
Oh, and if you haven’t seen it, you really should watch John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time. Not many people can unite Paul Keating, Lano and Woodley, Max Gillies, Gina Riley, Sam Neill and Michael Leunig. That’s because there was only one John Clarke.