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dave taranto

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The bizarrely named show that started my professional performance career. I was 20 years old in 1987 and nothing thrilled me quite like being on stage. University had been good for one thing - theatre. I had been given the chance to perform in productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Troilus and Cressida as well as a raw, wing-and-a-prayer production of Waiting For Godot and I felt I was receiving a real education. When I heard that there was a show that toured professionally FOR A WHOLE YEAR, got you an Equity Card (in those days it was 'no ticket no start') and could lead to TV (as it had for The D-Generation (Working Dog) crew), I thought HELLO...

Revue is a little out of fashion these days, as is ensemble comedy on the whole, but back then Melbourne Uni revues had a great reputation for creating comic talent. The 1987 revue included Mick Molloy and Jason Stephens, who went on to join the D-Gen, and Andrew Maj, who has carved out a career as a comedy writer and performer of long standing.

I will always be grateful for what the Laminex experience gave me. I learned a lot about comedy, comic writing, about working in groups being thrown together and forced to develop a kind of organic style, and I discovered what kind of person I turn into under pressure. Most of all, the show gave me a path to follow: I found something I was good at that also inspired me.

This is me being my young sensitive self in Kakadu National Park. The travel was great but totally discombobulating at the same time. I had never been away from home before, I'd never done a comedy show before, never drunk beer nor even flown in a plane... and I was a serious, nervous creature who wanted to be an ARTIST, MAN! Truth be known I didn't know my arse from my elbow. Steep learning curve? I hadn't even seen an Aboriginal person up close before this, let alone toured a uranium mine... so yes.

Some of the cast in Katherine NT. Andrew Maj (as Elmer Fudd), Margie Nunn (Miss Piggy), Mick Molloy (Yogi Bear), Jason Stephens (Speedy Gonzales) and me as - I said as - Foghorn Leghorn. Yep, just like the review says - sophisticated stuff.

I was rapt to be onstage and have people laugh at me. This was a fairly novel experience and I felt like the most popular guy in the room pretty much ALL THE TIME. I had become a little dislillusioned with university studies by the time the audition for the revue came around so I relished the opportunity to put away my books and see the country BEING THE MOST HILARIOUS GUY Melbourne Uni had produced since Barry Humphries. (Oh yeah...did I mention I was just 20 years old when the tour started? And a little naive and full of myself?)

Jason as Jesus the last action hero: "He's back... and this time he's not happy..."

The original cast included myself, Mick, Jason, Andrew, Margie Nunn, Erika Williams and Jonathan Carter. Jonathan left the show after the initial season, so we carried on as six until things changed again in the middle of the year, when Erika and I left and were replaced by Andrew McAliece. It was impressed upon us that we were making an extremely demanding commitment and that we all had to contribute material. I tried. I really did.

I got the chance to indulge my fascination with Boy George by performing a parody of Culture Club's Victims written by Mick and Jason as Drug Victims in keeping with the scandalous revelations about George's heroin-induced decline. I went to town in what now seems a rather harsh satirical stab at my hero.

Drug Victims

Drug victims we know so well/ See their sunken eyes and their self-made hell/ Strange faces that never see/ Past the next day's dawn or their broken dreams / And I keep on telling you/ Please oh please don't sniff that glue/ As the faces cringe/ I pass the syringe/ My diseases I give to you.

We buy but we never sell/ If we're straight or we're high you can never tell/ Drugs lead us into the stream/ Where you sink, don't swim, you become a hasbeen/ And I keep on coming close/ To that fatal overdose/ As my arteries seize/ Contract another disease/ Can I give them all to you?

Feel the point of a needle/ Brush aside the fear that it's evil/ Ain't no time for introspection/ I'm overdue for another injection/ Smack and speed are my only company/ Hope I don't end up like Elvis Presley/ Drug victims, we know them so well... so well...

Drug victims we know so well/ Write on my epitaph 'The star that rose and fell'/ Strange that after all these years/ The tracks of my vein match the tracks of my tears/ But as my senses start to tingle/ It feels much better than a new smash hit single/ Maybe it's not too late/ I'll rehabilitate...

Drug victims, we know them so well... so well...

Once we hit Perth the show had changed so much and we all knew each other in a very special way... that is, we'd really started getting on each other's nerves. But the show was a huge success at The Hole In The Wall Theatre in Subiaco. We packed it out and felt like stars.

I was starting to feel strange though... my voice wasn't holding out that well (strain) and I was getting so so incredibly tired. I decided I would quit the show after the Canberra season. Erika left at that time too. There was great disappointment at my decision but I just couldn't do it any more. I was very confused about what I could do, who I was, what life was all about. I had to take stock (which meant moving back to Mum and Dad's, working in Mum's packaging factory, and feeling like I'd made the biggest mistake of my life).

Mick and I in the Katherine Gorge. It was, for me, quite extraordinary and not at all about COMEDY. Mick reached his 21st birthday on the tour and decided he would try and drink for 24 hours straight. No one remembers if he did it but the legend lives.

This ad includes a cartoon I'd done of the cast, director and producer to celebrate our tour around the country. The show's title stopped being Laminex On The Rocks and became (the equally nonsensical) Laminex On The Road.

The Footage

I have included two sketches from the Laminex On The Rocks shows we did at the Prince Patrick Hotel, Collingwood, which, even in 1987 was jumping seven nights a week as one of Melbourne's premier comedy venues. We used to pack it out on even Monday nights such was the room's reputation ('cos no one knew who the hell we were). I am grateful to Andrew and Margie for passing on the DVD of the show.