The first line in the chorus of Mr Clicketty Cane, Peter Combe’s most famous song, is so beloved that the song itself has been renamed for it: “Wash your face in orange juice.” When the Australian kids’ entertainer performs this song for children, he asks them to sing back to him. And they do, with the solemn seriousness of a child who has been given a job to do by an adult they don’t know.
But with every new silly instruction (and this hasn’t changed in the 40 years he has been singing it), they get gigglier. Even the 10- and 11-year-olds – the hardest people to win over in any room, according to Combe, because by then they’ve learned what it means to be cool.
