'Comic actors have made a particularly strong contribution to cultural life in Australia over the past sixty years. They have brought a range of memorable characters to the stage, television and film; they have transformed our image of ourselves, helped to overturn the crippling cultural cringe, and brought Australian humour and satire to the world. The Australian theatre, television and film industries are dynamic in ways that could never have been imagined fifty years ago. These industries have expanded and demonstrated extraordinary vitality, with actors, as the public face of the performing arts, carrying the immediate responsibility for the success of each show. It is the actors, and often the characters they play, that we remember when we recall a favourite television program, film or play, long after we have seen it. In spite of this they are frequently left out of history.' (Publication summary)
'Each of the other biographies streams easily from childhood, through to the early struggles of artistic exploration, to maturity and the many comedic and theatrical projects and ventures that the artist is involved with, and to the finale of a life well lived. The text jumps from university theatre where Humphries excels at creating grotesque characters, to a country tour of Twelfth Night directed by Ray Lawler where Humphries develops Edna as a cruel impersonation of CWA women, to the appearance of Edna in a Ray Lawler review just prior to the Olympic Games in 1955, to Humphries' first stage show starring Edna, A Nice Night's Entertainment in 1962, and so on. Max Gillies began his career through student acting at Monash University in Melbourne and from there joining the Australian Performing Group, working out of the Pram Factory in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton.' (Publication abstract)
'Nowadays every second young person seems to want to be a stand-up comic, an occupation that perfectly represents the ‘gig’ economy in its precariousness and occasional nature. Anne Pender gives us mini-biographies of seven Australians who succeeded, often spectacularly, in the risky business of being a comic long before the idea of a ‘gig’ economy entered the collective mind. Beginning with Carol Raye, Pender relates, in forty or so pages each, the life stories of Barry Humphries, Noeline Brown, Max Gillies, John Clarke, Tony Sheldon, and Denise Scott – in other words, members of the two cohorts who rode the national theatre and television wave from the 1960s to the recent past.' (Introduction)
'Nowadays every second young person seems to want to be a stand-up comic, an occupation that perfectly represents the ‘gig’ economy in its precariousness and occasional nature. Anne Pender gives us mini-biographies of seven Australians who succeeded, often spectacularly, in the risky business of being a comic long before the idea of a ‘gig’ economy entered the collective mind. Beginning with Carol Raye, Pender relates, in forty or so pages each, the life stories of Barry Humphries, Noeline Brown, Max Gillies, John Clarke, Tony Sheldon, and Denise Scott – in other words, members of the two cohorts who rode the national theatre and television wave from the 1960s to the recent past.' (Introduction)
'Each of the other biographies streams easily from childhood, through to the early struggles of artistic exploration, to maturity and the many comedic and theatrical projects and ventures that the artist is involved with, and to the finale of a life well lived. The text jumps from university theatre where Humphries excels at creating grotesque characters, to a country tour of Twelfth Night directed by Ray Lawler where Humphries develops Edna as a cruel impersonation of CWA women, to the appearance of Edna in a Ray Lawler review just prior to the Olympic Games in 1955, to Humphries' first stage show starring Edna, A Nice Night's Entertainment in 1962, and so on. Max Gillies began his career through student acting at Monash University in Melbourne and from there joining the Australian Performing Group, working out of the Pram Factory in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton.' (Publication abstract)
