In a career that spanned close to 40 years, the late satirist and comedian John Clarke played thousands of people. In his native New Zealand he was Fred Dagg, sheep farmer and gumboot philosopher. In Australia he was best known as one half of Clarke and Dawe – the voice of an endless parade of risible politicians, shonky businessmen and overconfident idiots.
His magic trick was to play them all as himself. His eldest daughter, Lorin Clarke, explains it in her father’s own words. “He used to say to me, ‘If you ask some actors to play Hamlet, they will become a Danish prince, and they will research Danish princes. If you ask me to play Hamlet, Hamlet comes from Palmerston North.’”
