A Pleasure to be Here: The Best of Clarke and Dawe

by John Clarke

A hilarious collection of interviews discussing the highs and lows in the public and political life of Australia over the past three decades. Drawn from John Clarke’s and Bryan Dawe’s weekly broadcasts, these timelessly funny scripts will delight readers as they revisit the scandals and stuff-ups of our lifetimes. Politics was never so preposterous. All the old favourites are here: Bob Hawke, Margaret Thatcher, Bob Collins (‘the front fell off’), Paul Keating, Alan Bond, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

John Clarke was born in New Zealand in 1948. He was and remains one of Australia’s best known and most loved faces on TV. A comedian, writer and actor, his appearances included the famous Fred Dagg character, The Gillies Report and The Games. John’s books include The Even More Complete Book of Australian Verse, A Dagg at My Table, The Howard Miracle and The 7.56 Report. His only novel, The Tournament, was published in the UK and the US to great critical acclaim and will be republished in the Text Classics in November. He died in April 2017.

‘A reminder of what a god of a comedian he was…Clarke never imitated the voices, faces or mannerisms of our overlord. He simply paid lavish and travestying homage to the way they thought and did their best to deceive us.’ Australian

Genres: Nonfiction

441 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. This is John^^Clarke.

John Clarke (29 July 1948 – 9 April 2017) was a New Zealand–born comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and lived in Australia from the late 1970s. He was a highly regarded actor and writer whose work appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in both radio and television and also in print.

Reviews

[Text Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘A reminder of what a god of a comedian he was … Clarke never imitated the voices, faces or mannerisms of our overlord. He simply paid lavish and travestying homage to the way they thought and did their best to deceive us.’
Australian

[Nicholas Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good selection of the interviews written by John Clarke and Bryan Dawe. the selections are taken to cover their entire performance career so people with other interview collections will doubtlessly have some duplication, but even so there is value in the later ones in the book that weren't covered as well/at all by his earlier works (even President Trump gets a mention, for instance).

If you weren't a die hard John Clarke fan and wanted one book of his interviews, this would be the one I would wholeheartedly recommend.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I miss John Clarke so much

[Clare B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can hear John’s voice and see the twinkle in his eye reading these - what a pair he and Bryan were. John is so sorely missed.