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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/11/john-clarke-daughter-lorin-documentary-film-but-also-john-clarke-miff>
"In a career that spanned close to 40 years, the late satirist and comedian
John Clarke played thousands of people. In his native New Zealand he was Fred
Dagg, sheep farmer and gumboot philosopher. In Australia he was best known as
one half of Clarke and Dawe – the voice of an endless parade of risible
politicians, shonky businessmen and overconfident idiots.
His magic trick was to play them all as himself. His eldest daughter, Lorin
Clarke, explains it in her father’s own words. “He used to say to me, ‘If you
ask some actors to play Hamlet, they will become a Danish prince, and they will
research Danish princes. If you ask me to play Hamlet, Hamlet comes from
Palmerston North.’”
In Lorin’s new documentary about her father,
But Also John Clarke, his old
friend and fellow New Zealander Sam Neill puts it this way: “John was a
polymath. He could write, he could perform, he could knock up a poem for you,
but there was always that John Clarke thing in the middle of it.”
Clarke died suddenly in 2017 aged 68, after suffering a heart attack on a
bushwalk in the Grampians, Victoria. He had been birdwatching, a beloved
pastime. The then Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said Clarke’s
satire – of which he was a frequent target – “served a noble purpose. It spoke
truth to power. It made our democracy richer and stronger.”"
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
