Tag: John Clarke

Would That Be Funny? Seems That It Would

Lorin Clarke’s Would that be funny? Growing up with John Clarke is a book about growing up with John Clarke as your father. Let’s get the suspense over with: having Clarke as a dad seems to have been exactly as awesome as you’d expect. The portrait of him here is the kind of thing you’d... Read More »

From the archives: A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy

Just over two years ago we lost John Clarke, if not the greatest satirist the Southern Hemisphere has ever produced then certainly in the top two. Clarke was best known for writing and starring in the sitcom The Games and for his weekly sketches with Bryan Dawe, but he did an awful lot of other... Read More »

Sammy J and missing John Clarke

If there’s one tweet which has captured the mood this past week, it’s this from comedian Michael Griffin. Wish John Clarke was doing Barnaby Joyce this week. “It wasn’t wrong to get her the job, because they weren’t in a relationship.” “So why did you get her the job?” “Well their relationship was causing so... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2017 – The Results!

Not long after voting opened for these awards, we were contacted by a cast member from an Australian comedy series we’d recently reviewed. While our review of their show was fairly positive – at least by our standards, but more on that later – this cast member was angry that we had characterised a portion... Read More »

Getting Back With Your Ex

For a man so consistently hilarious, it’s a little surprising that Shaun Micallef has never quite cracked the secret of sitcom success. Welcher & Welcher has its defenders – ironically, they don’t include Micallef himself – but it’s generally seen as more miss than hit, while the first season of The Ex-PM never really scaled... Read More »

Ello John, got a new program!

Since the untimely death of John Clarke just over two months ago, it’s been nice to see many of his classic sketches again thanks to Clarke & Dawe From the Archives. But it’s also sad to remember that there’s now only so much John Clarke out there to enjoy, and very little unseen Clarke to... Read More »

And the Logies loser is…comedy

What we said about the Logies comedy nominations back in March: with the industry so in love with Please Like Me, it wouldn’t surprise us if that won instead. What happened: Did I just win a Logie!? — Josh Thomas (@JoshThomas87) April 23, 2017 Facetiming my Logie! pic.twitter.com/m5i5L7NgBQ — Josh Thomas (@JoshThomas87) April 23, 2017... Read More »

Thanks for your time, again

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... Read More »

John Clarke, thanks for your time

We honestly thought Clarke & Dawe would never end. Two men, a couple of chairs, a great script – the perfect satirical format. Things were looking a bit shaky for John Clarke and Bryan Dawe towards the end of the Howard years, when Gerard Henderson was banging on about left-wing bias in comedy and shows... Read More »

Australia’s Funniest New Zealander Dead at 68

The ABC has confirmed that John Clarke – yes, the funny one – passed away over the weekend of natural causes while hiking in the Victorian Grampians. He was 68. It’s hard to underestimate the size of this loss. As a mentor and friend he was an invaluable part of Australia’s comedy scene, and his... Read More »