Bryan Dawe
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Bryan John Dawe is best known as an Australian comedian and political satirist, but is also known for his work as a musician, songwriter, painter, and photographer.
He has been a regular collaborator of fellow satirist John Clarke in the form of mock interviews, first for A Current Affair, and then for The 7.30 Report. Dawe would take on the role of interviewer, with Clarke playing the role of a prominent figure or politician. This generally involves Dawe trying to press for an answer and Clarke trying to evade the question. They began writing and presenting these in 1989, and switched to The 7.30 Report not long after leaving A Current Affair in 1997. As of 2008, the pair still present their interview segment approximately each week. The interviews have also been compiled into several books and CD releases, two of which "Great Interviews of the 20th Century" and "The Annual Report" won the pair the ARIA Award for 'Best Australian Comedy Record'. "Secret Men's Business" was nominated for the same award in 1997.
Dawe has a number of other roles outside of his interview collaborations with Clarke. He is a musician and songwriter, and in the early 1970s he worked as an A&R manager for Astor Records and played a significant role in making the Neil Diamond LP Hot August Night a major hit in Australia. He is also a talented painter and photographer, and has featured in several gallery exhibitions which combine these two interests, with his paintings projected onto female models.
In the 1980s he wrote and performed in a long-running radio comedy series centered on the characters of elderly couple Roly and Sonja Parks. In 1990, he had a stint as both a writer and actor on the comedy series Fast Forward. Dawe had a minor role in the successful Australian film The Castle in 1997. However, of these, the most successful was his role, along with Clarke, in the satirical series The Games. The series was a mockumentary about the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and ran from 1998 to 2000. Dawe also had a minor role in the 2003 film The Honourable Wally Norman.
In addition to his interview commitments, Dawe regularly appears on ABC Radio as his two alter egos, Sir Murray Rivers and Roly Parks. Some of his Letters from Kalangadoo segments as Roly Parks have subsequently been released on CD.
