Rod Quantock

Rod Quantock

Rod Quantock as featured in an art piece at the Trades Hall.
Born 1948
Medium Cabaret, theatre, television, radio, print, corporate sector
Nationality Australian
Years active 1975–present
Genres Political satire
Spouse Mary Kenneally (1972–present)
Website www.quantock.com.au

Rodney Edward "Rod" Quantock OAM (born 1948) is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer.[1][2] 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.

Biography

Early life

Quantock grew up in Coburg. 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. They married in 1972 and they had two children, living in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill. One of Quantock's sisters, Loris, is a Sydney-based artist.[3]

Break into theatre

Quantock's break into theatre came in the early '70s. Quantock played a large part in the rebirth 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 It, 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

Along with Kenneally, Geoff Brooks and Stephen Blackburn, Quantock opened and operated The Comedy Cafe and Banana Lounge.

Notable acts

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"[4] 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.[5]

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 become[6]

but 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 were all given Groucho Marx masks and Rod carried a rubber chicken on a stick, named Trevor.

Political activism

Quantock on the Time To Go John set

Quantock is a strong leftist 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.

He was MC at a number of rallies and public meetings in the campaign to stop the East-West Link. .

In 2014, Quantock became a research associate at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, working on the presentation of climate change impacts and resource crises.[7]

Double Disillusion

Double Disillusion

From 1989–1994, Quantock was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Age and in September 1999, Double Disillusion, a compilation book of these columns and some of his live performances, was published.

Awards

Biography by year

Year Title Notes
1968 Melbourne University Architects Revue
1969 Melbourne University Architects Revue
1970-1 Melbourne University Architects Revue
How Many Sugars Do You Have In Your Nose Vicar Guild Theatre; one man show
1972 Melbourne University 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, Sydney
Bondi Pavlova Bondi Pavilion
The Wunderkind Rocketship Show Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant
Sunshine Over Nunnawading 3ZZZ 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 ABC TV, Melbourne; 9-part series
1984 Australia You're Standing In It ABC TV, Melbourne; 6-part series
Bus, Son of Tram The Comedy Café
1986 Bus, Son of Tram Melbourne Comedy Festival
The Book program ABC TV, Melbourne Comedy Festival
1988 Rod Quantock Inflates Melbourne Comedy Festival; one man show
Bus Edinburgh Festival
1989 Fast Forward Seven Network
1990 Lift-Off Australian Children’s Television Foundation
1996 Bus, Son of Tram Melbourne Comedy Festival
Denton Seven Network
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 ABC TV/Network Ten; regular panelist

Year Title Notes
2000 Utopia Melbourne Comedy Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival; one man show
One Size Fits All ABC TV, Melbourne
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; 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, 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
The Annual Report National tour; one man show
Australia Adelaide Fringe Festival 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

External links

References

  1. McCallum, Brendan (12 April 2007). "Rob Quantock – An Inconvenient Interview". Articles. Spark Online. Archived from the original on 6 October 2009.
  2. Bailey, John (12 February 2007). "Court in the Act". The Age.
  3. http://www.lorisquantock.com/
  4. Thompson, Peter (24 October 2005). "Talking Heads – Rod Quantock". ABC.
  5. Denton, Andrew (25 September 2006). "Enough Rope with Andrew Denton – Rod Quantock". ABC.
  6. Bunbury, Stephanie (6 December 2002). "Back on the buses". The Age.
  7. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rod-quantock/21/4a6/373
  8. "1997 Green Room Awards". Green Room Awards. 17 February 1998.
  9. "Rod Quantock". Artists. Token. 25 September 2006. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012.
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