Flacco is a fictional character played by Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and political cartoonist Paul Livingston

Paul Livingston

Paul Livingston, popularly known as his alter ego Flacco, is an Australian comedian who has regularly appeared on many television shows, predominantly on ABC TV and Network Ten, including Good News Week, The Sandman and Flacco Special, The Big Gig, DAAS Kapital, The Money or the Gun, The Fat and...

.

Livingston created the character in 1985, when he got up on stage as part of a bet, and the audience mistook his nervousness for a comedic character. Flacco's trademark curl of hair on a pale bald head was originally Livingston's actual hair, until actual baldness forced him to use hairpieces.

In 2009, a portrait by Paul Jackson of Livingston in character as Flacco won the Packing Room Prize as part of the Archibald Prize

Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...

.

Character

Flacco was an outsider whose observations of people took on an almost alien quality. He had a completely bald head with a single stylised (thick) strand of hair and was frequently seen in a suit. He made quick observations often interspersed with incorrect movie, theatre or cultural quotes.

Television appearances

Flacco first appeared on television in 1988 on Andrew Denton

Andrew Denton

Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...

s Blah Blah Blah

Blah Blah Blah

Blah Blah Blah was a 1988 comedy television show starring Andrew Denton, broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The show is most notable for the fact that it began the television careers of many Australian performers including Flacco and Roy & HG...

 and came to prominence the following year on The Big Gig

The Big Gig

The Big Gig was a popular Australian television comedy series based on the British TV series Saturday Live. It was produced and broadcast by the ABC in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was produced and directed by Ted Robinson, who started his career as the director of the second series of the...

, as an alien who engaged in observational humour. He reprised the role, also as an alien in DAAS Kapital

DAAS Kapital

DAAS Kapital was an Australian television comedy series written and performed by comedy trio the Doug Anthony All Stars. The show starred Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler, along with Flacco, Michael Petroni, Bob Downe and Khym Lam....

, a sitcom featuring fellow Big Gig alumni the Doug Anthony All Stars

Doug Anthony All Stars

The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...

 (DAAS).

His appearances on Good News Week

Good News Week

Good News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that initially aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and resumed on 11 February 2008 to 9 May 2011. The show aired first on ABC TV before it was bought by Network Ten in 1999...

 paired him with the Sandman (played by Steve Abbott), and the two characters appeared together frequently live and on television.

In 2007, Flacco made regular appearances on the ABC1 show The Sideshow

The Sideshow

The Sideshow was an Australian television programme that was broadcast on ABC TV in 2007. The show was a mixture of stand-up comedy, sketches, live music, circus stunts, cabaret and burlesque. The hour long show was hosted by Paul McDermott...

 alongside Abbott and Paul McDermott

Paul McDermott (comedian)

Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week which airs in Australia on Network Ten...

, with Gordon Farrer of The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...

 calling the show a "living link to an earlier era of Australian culture", due to the presence of Flacco, the Sandman and former DAAS member McDermott as comedians of the 1990s.

A holographic video display featuring Flacco sat at the Black Mountain Tower in Canberra during the 1990s in their now-removed "Making Connections" exhibition.

Publications

• Flacco's Burnt Offerings (1995) Penguin Books (ISBN 0140247823)
• The Flacco Files (1999), Allen and Unwin (compilation of columns from The Australian
  The Australian
  The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
  
  Weekend Magazine, ISBN 1865082260)

External links

• Article on Flacco from 2007