The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower by Paul Hogan

Author:Paul Hogan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2020-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

15

A Hillbilly in NYC

When I was in New York doing a bit of tourist promotion in early 1984, some Aussie journalists there wanted to take some photos of me in classic New York places. I discovered that we just happened to be near the New York Yacht Club. ‘If we can sneak in there,’ I said, ‘you can take some pics of their empty display case.’

They loved the idea and we managed to talk our way into that prestigious setting.

‘This is where the America’s Cup used to be,’ I announced, posing next to a large glass cabinet. ‘I’m not exactly sure where it is now, but if you want to see it, maybe have a look down in Australia, somewhere around Perth.’ The Australian journalists all loved me taking the mickey, and afterwards we all went out for a drink.

When I left the bar that afternoon, I couldn’t get a cab. It was five o’clock and it was clear I would have to walk. It seemed like everyone in New York was going one way and I was going the other. I remember thinking, I’ve spent my whole life in cities but going against this peak-hour Manhattan crowd makes me feel like a hillbilly. The energy of the city and the people and their fashion and fast talking was simply overwhelming.

So, as is my way, I started to write a sketch in my head. I thought it’d be a Hoges sketch, about how he’d react. But as I fought my way through the crowd, the sketch in my head grew longer and longer. I now started to think that instead of it being me, or Hoges, I should make it about a bloke from one of the remotest parts of the outback who’d never been to a big city. There were plenty of things to send up.

By the time I got to the hotel, my sketch, which normally would be about three minutes long, had stretched out to about twenty minutes. It was a jumble of random ideas but I sensed it had a future.

The following day I had to head back to Australia, as I’d been cast in the World War I TV mini-series Anzacs. This drama followed a group of young Australian men who enlisted in the 8th Battalion (Australia) of the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914, fighting initially at Gallipoli in 1915 and then on the Western Front for the remainder of the war. It was a story that needed to be told and a fantastic shoot, made with an absolutely great bunch of blokes – well, mainly blokes, as it was a war film. As with any television production, there were hours of sitting around. To keep myself busy I started to develop my ‘sketch’ further. It grew longer and longer until I thought, It’s not a sketch, it’s a movie.

With The Paul Hogan Show, there was always something of a rush to shoot things. When I was doing Anzacs I started to enjoy having

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