Family secrets.
The other evening I was catching up with my dad over a cold beverage or three and the conversation turned to Spamalot, the Monty Python musical. My pumpkin-hued sweetheart and I had seen it a couple of weeks ago and were full of praise, though mostly about the original Python classic. After a while my father grew a little misty-eyed and casually dropped into conversation:
Dad: I did an audition with Eric Idle once.
Me: What?
Dad: For a commercial. We got along very well, actually.
Me: What kind of commercial? When?
Dad: He was in Australia. It was for something called a Nudge Bar.
Tim: Oh, like...nudge nudge, wink wink?
Dad: Exactly.
Me: So what did you do in the ad?
Dad: Well, I didn't get the job. But the audition went for a while, and Eric and I had a good chat. He was a lovely bloke. The casting agent said if I'd gone over to the UK I probably would have been employed by him without hesitation.
Tim: Why didn't you go?
Dad: Because the casting agent was mad as a cut snake.
Me: I can't believe you've never told me about this.
Dad: It was years ago. I would have been in my early twenties.
Long pause.
Dad: Yeah. Lovely bloke, Eric. I'm glad he's done so well for himself.
*************************
How can your father go 31 years without telling you he spent an afternoon riffing with Eric Idle? Lord knows what other secrets my dad has up his sleeve. I know he was a tram conductor and once graced the cover of Australia Post pamphlets as 'the airmail guy'. If I find out he led some secret double life as a Russian spy I'll be most put out.
Comments
Who was your favourite python?
Um, yeah, so, that's the lamest threadbare celebrity connection you're ever going to get
My dad was introduced to Col Joye once!
You know. As you do.
Parents say the darndest things, etc.
And don't get me started on my wife and her freind who decided they couldn't be bothered going to the pyjama party Kylie threw for Danni before her wedding!!
Can’t wait to have a daughter to teach her how to drink beer.
Creative parents yours, good for you Lady Fits
Have you thought of the day you will drink beer with your child?.
but you got me thinking of all things orange, cause you mentioned your other 'alf
& i was thinking of and drooling for ....... a sunnyboy ... ah, that would go down well right now...
hmmm, great frozen treat and bloody great band too!
all hail the sunnyboys!
Though a live version of "Knights of the Round Table" does sound entertaining. I would hope they had chickens.
MY Mum had to kiss Darryl Summers daily for some months while they toured Victorian shopping centres doing a pantomime in the late 70's. I'm pretty sure she was scarred by the whole experience and has been known to describe him as an 'arrogant kisser'.
Dad went to school with Steve Vizard and he says Steve wanted to be a horse racing announcer when he grew up. He also went to school with Peter Costello... or Tim perhaps.
With all these links, I could have had a wonderful time doing the circuit of variety shows in the 90's.
Fuck there is a lot of name dropping on this thread.
I had sex once with the daughter of Slater from Slater and Gordon. No poo. No audition either. She had fake boobs and I couldn't tell. Not that I cared.
*DYK that I also pissed in Steve Vizard's fountain in his front yard in the Fast Forward days?
My greatest celebrity connection is the time I met Marieke Hardy.
Of course.
Funny thing is he was running late to interview Lennon and when he heard the first shots thought it might've been a pissed off Yoko.
Who knows if it's even true or not, it might've been a hard night at the Chelsea or something.
I think they just drip feed us these stories to keep us interested.
I'm beginning to think my parents are nowhere near as cool as I previously thought
fact.
Jes' Shane I canna understand why the little bugger dinna just drown in there rather than worry about it.
Might have been more a case of the young ladies being worried about it, Joe2.
I agree with Sub on the drip feed hypothesis.
Over time it has been reveald to me that my Dad... :
Bought a car off Johnny Young (incredible huh?)
Once photographed the Easybeats (I have the negatives somewhere)
And studied at RMIT with David Parker (writer of Australian cult film classic 'Malcolm' ) who he describes as "always having a lot going on. The legend goes that Parker was once asked on a Monday morning at tafe/uni how his weekend was and his response was casually "Oh, you know, got married...". It was to Nadia Tass and I believe they are still together (nawwwe)... er, maybe if I have to explain so much about who someone is I guess that means they aren't really technically that famous are they?...hmmm.
More interestingly, I recently found out through a conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear that my aunty and uncle/ Dad's brother and sister do not share the same father as my Dad. When I asked my Dad why he never told me this he couldn't say "because you never asked" because I did, several times, I had my suspicions. So his response was a little sadder, "Because nobody told me until I was 21 so why should you get to know any earlier than me?"
This was back in the 21 Jump St days.
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