Rod Quantock
Encyclopedia
Rod Quantock is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. He is known for his peculiar style of stand-up comedy, which is often politically driven, as well as being the face of bed retailer Capt'n Snooze for many years. Described as "a living Melbourne treasure" by The Age
newspaper, he has also achieved great prominence with his involvement in political activism and social justice and as a speaker at many public and corporate events.
. His father worked in Fitzroy
in a metal-polishing factory and as a tram conductor. Before venturing into professional comedy, Quantock studied architecture at the University of Melbourne
for 5 years. His interest in comedy started at the university Architect's revue in 1969, where he felt extremely comfortable once onstage. It was here that he met his future wife Mary Kenneally who was studying Law at the time. He went on to marry her in 1972 and they had two children.
, Fast Forward, Denton
, Backberner
and was a regular on The Big Gig
and Good News Week
.
In 2005, he appeared as the subject of an art exhibition displayed at Crown Casino
.
Quantock has been a founding member on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
board, a consultant to the Melbourne Moomba
Festival and a member of the Arts Committee of the Bicentennial BHP Awards For Excellence. Along with Kenneally, Geoff Brooks and Stephen Blackburn, Quantock opened and operated The Comedy Cafe and Banana Lounge.
The audience members where all given Groucho Marx masks and Rod carried a rubber chicken on a stick name Trevor.
and was the host of the 1997, 1998 and 2004 Ska-TV Activist awards which were broadcast on community television around Australia.
He gave a speech at the 17 January 2010 rally at closure of The Tote Hotel
.
and in September 1999, Double Disillusion, a compilation book of these columns and some of his live performances, was published.
In 2004, Quantock received the Individual Award at the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Awards.
In 2005, Quantock was the recipient of the Adelaide Justice Coalition Romero Community Award for his contribution to Australian social justice.
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper, he has also achieved great prominence with his involvement in political activism and social justice and as a speaker at many public and corporate events.
Early life
Quantock grew up in CoburgCoburg, Victoria
Coburg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Moreland, although a handful of properties on Coburg's Eastern boundary are located in the City of Darebin...
. His father worked in Fitzroy
Fitzroy, Victoria
Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. Its borders are Alexandra Parade , Victoria Parade , Smith Street and Nicholson Street. Fitzroy is Melbourne's...
in a metal-polishing factory and as a tram conductor. Before venturing into professional comedy, Quantock studied architecture at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
for 5 years. His interest in comedy started at the university Architect's revue in 1969, where he felt extremely comfortable once onstage. It was here that he met his future wife Mary Kenneally who was studying Law at the time. He went on to marry her in 1972 and they had two children.
Break into theatre
Quantock's break into theatre came in the early '70s. Quantock played a large part in the re-birth of live theatre in Australia in the '70s, conceiving and performing more than 20 full scale productions for many of Australia's comedy venues including The Flying Trapeze Cafe, Foibles Theatre Restaurant, The Last Laugh, The Comedy Café and the Trades Hall.Television
Quantock became more involved in television in the early 80s and the 90s, working on the series Ratbags, Australia You're Standing In ItAustralia You're Standing In It
Australia You're Standing In It was an Australian sketch comedy series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, first screened in 1983 with a second series made in 1984.-Cast:...
, Fast Forward, 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...
, Backberner
BackBerner
BackBerner was an Australian political satire sketch comedy television series, broadcast on and produced by ABC TV with Crackerjack Productions. The program was hosted by stand up comic Peter Berner and noted Australian character actor Louise Siversen...
and was a regular 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...
and 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...
.
In 2005, he appeared as the subject of an art exhibition displayed at Crown Casino
Crown Casino
Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex is a large casino and entertainment precinct located on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia. Crown Casino is a unit of Crown Limited....
.
Quantock has been a founding member on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
board, a consultant to the Melbourne Moomba
Moomba
Moomba is Australia's largest free community festival and one of the longest running festivals in Australia. Held annually in the city of Melbourne, Australia, Moomba is celebrated during the Labour Day long weekend , and has been celebrated since 1955...
Festival and a member of the Arts Committee of the Bicentennial BHP Awards For Excellence. Along with Kenneally, Geoff Brooks and Stephen Blackburn, Quantock opened and operated The Comedy Cafe and Banana Lounge.
Capt'n Snooze
Quantock starred in a series of television advertisements for bed retailer Capt'n Snooze from the '80s to the late '90s for which he has become most well known. In a working relationship spanning 18 years, Quantock explains that there were "a lot of things about Capt'n Snooze that were good and a lot of things that were bad" but concedes that his main reason for continuing to be the face of Capt'n Snooze was financial:They said, “All you've got to do is wear a little nightshirt and put a hat on and jump up and down on beds and you can have that semi-trailer full of money.” But I think it made me a bit less ambitious in terms of comedy. I mean I won’t go into the details, but we’ve had a lot of medical problems in our family, so that money took a lot of pressure off working professionally as a comedian. So I regret it at that level. I think I probably would be a better comedian, doing more interesting things if I hadn't have had that in my life.
Bus
Quantock became well known for conducting various evening bus tours of Melbourne and other parts of Victoria since the early '80s, a concept called Bus, Son of Tram or just Bus, where a group of people would travel on a bus with him to a surprise location to meet other people who had no idea of their coming. The success of the bus tour depended largely on the element of surprise and the results were almost always comical. Quantock saw it as a way of seeing how frightened people have become:We've got gated communities; we've got car alarms; we've got people putting steel shutters over their windows at night. People are frightened - of other people taking what they've got, of being killed, I suppose - so the thing I am going to find most interesting is how severe security has becomebut also as a way of
introduc[ing] unsuspecting people to this idea that the world's not such a frightening place and you can have fun with strangers.
The audience members where all given Groucho Marx masks and Rod carried a rubber chicken on a stick name Trevor.
Political activism
Quantock is a strong leftistLeft-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
and was the host of the 1997, 1998 and 2004 Ska-TV Activist awards which were broadcast on community television around Australia.
He gave a speech at the 17 January 2010 rally at closure of The Tote Hotel
The Tote Hotel
The Tote Hotel is a hotel, pub, bar and music venue on 71 Johnston Street, the corner of Johnston and Wellington Streets, in Collingwood, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
.
Double Disillusion
From 1989-1994, Quantock was a weekly columnist for the Sunday AgeThe Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
and in September 1999, Double Disillusion, a compilation book of these columns and some of his live performances, was published.
Awards
In 1997, Quantock received a Green Room Award for his one man show Sunrise Boulevard.In 2004, Quantock received the Individual Award at the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Awards.
In 2005, Quantock was the recipient of the Adelaide Justice Coalition Romero Community Award for his contribution to Australian social justice.
Biography by year
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Melbourne University University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria... Architects Revue |
|
| 1970 | Melbourne University Architects Revue | |
| 1971 | Melbourne University Architects Revue | |
| How Many Sugars Do You Have In Your Nose Vicar | Guild Theatre; one man show | |
| 1972 | Melbourne University University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria... Architects Revue |
|
| His Mother’s Baby Boy | Guild Theatre; one man show | |
| 1973 | Sennitt’s Ice-cream Show | Pram Factory |
| 1974-78 | (Various shows) | Flying Trapeze Cafe |
| 1975 | Upstairs Upstairs: A Pant-pant-pantomime | Flying Trapeze Cafe |
| 1976 | The Razzle Dazzle Revue | ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... , Sydney |
| Bondi Pavlova | Bondi Pavilion Bondi Pavilion The Bondi Surf Pavilion in Sydney, Australia, constructed in 1928, is a building of historic significance and has been listed by the Heritage Council. According to the National Trust it "has come to represent the Australian culture of beach bathing and outdoors living"... |
|
| The Wunderkind Rocketship Show | Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant | |
| Sunshine Over Nunnawading | 3ZZZ 3ZZZ 3ZZZ is an ethnic community radio station in Melbourne, Australia broadcasting programs in over 70 languages on FM 92.3 MHz.... Radio; 13 episode, 30 minute radio serial |
|
| 1977–1994 | (Various shows) | Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant, Le Joke |
| 1977 | Les Boys | Foibles Theatre Restaurant |
| The Wonderful World of Ducks | Foibles Theatre Restaurant | |
| 1978 | Duck For Cover | Foibles Theatre Restaurant |
| 1979 | The Comedy Café Show | The Comedy Café |
| 1980 | Old Blue Eyes Is Back | The Comedy Café; one man show |
| Tram | The Comedy Café | |
| 1981 | Ratbags | Channel 10, Sydney |
| Bus, Son of Tram | The Comedy Café; one man mobile show | |
| 1982 | Bus, Son of Tram | The Comedy Café |
| 1983 | Bus, Son of Tram | Kinsellas, Sydney |
| Australia You're Standing In It Australia You're Standing In It Australia You're Standing In It was an Australian sketch comedy series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, first screened in 1983 with a second series made in 1984.-Cast:... |
ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... , Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... ; 9-part series |
|
| 1984 | Australia You're Standing In It Australia You're Standing In It Australia You're Standing In It was an Australian sketch comedy series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, first screened in 1983 with a second series made in 1984.-Cast:... |
ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... , Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... ; 6-part series |
| Bus, Son of Tram | The Comedy Café | |
| 1986 | Bus, Son of Tram | Melbourne Comedy Festival |
| The Book program | ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... , Melbourne Comedy Festival |
|
| 1988 | Rod Quantock Inflates | Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show |
| Bus | Edinburgh Festival Edinburgh Festival The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August... |
|
| 1989 | Fast Forward Fast Forward Fast Forward was Australia’s highest rating, longest running and most critically awarded commercial television sketch comedy , broadcast for 90 one hour episodes from 12 April 1989 to 26 November 1992.... |
Seven Network Seven Network The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach... |
| 1990 | Lift-Off | Australian Children’s Television Foundation |
| 1996 | Bus, Son of Tram | Melbourne Comedy Festival |
| 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... |
Seven Network Seven Network The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach... |
|
| 1997 | Sunrise Boulevard | Melbourne Comedy Festival and Melbourne Trades Hall; one man show; won Green Room Award in 1998 |
| Happy Birthday Jesus | Melbourne Trades Hall | |
| 1997–2000 | 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... |
ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... /Network Ten Network Ten Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country... ; regular panelist |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Utopia | Melbourne Comedy Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe... ; one man show |
| One Size Fits All | ABC TV ABC Television ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas.... , Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... |
|
| 2001 | Lest We Forget: An Inquiry Into Police, Politics and Protest | Trades Hall; one man show |
| Rodtacular | Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show | |
| 2002 | Scum Nation | Melbourne Comedy Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe... ; one man show |
| Boredom Protection Policy | Trades Hall; one man show | |
| 2003 | Sun, Sex & Sydition | Big Laugh Festival, Sydney; one man show |
| Axis of Stupidity | Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show | |
| Baghdad Nights | Trades Hall; one man show | |
| 2004 | Howard on Ice | Adelaide Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe... , Big Laugh Festival, Sydney and Melbourne Comedy Festival |
| 2005 | Demockracy | Trades Hall; one man show |
| Mannix | Kingston Arts Centre | |
| Rodents & Other Arselickers | Big Laugh Festival, Sydney; one man show | |
| A Brief History of the End of the World | Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show | |
| 2006 | Coming Clean | Melbourne Fringe Festival Melbourne Fringe Festival The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual independent arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia. The Festival runs for three weeks from late September to early October, usually overlapping with the beginning of the Melbourne International Arts Festival... |
| The Annual Report | National tour; one man show | |
| Australia | Adelaide Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe... and Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show |
|
| Ferry: An amphibious evening of maritime madness | Big Laugh Festival, Sydney; one man show | |
| The Inaugural Golden Guy Fawkes Awards | Old Melbourne Gaol | |
| Mannix | Trades Hall | |
| The Annual Report | Tour of rural & regional Australia; one man show | |
| 2007 | ||
| 2008 | 2050AD - The Musical | Trades Hall; no music |