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Rod Quantock.
 Rod
Quantock is as funny a bugger as you’re likely to meet - he’s
been around for years, and probably offending people for even
longer, and he happily admits it.
His biography - even a brief glimpse of it - bears this out - as a writer of comedy and current affair pieces he’s pretty much done it all. Today however, has just been another ordinary day in the life of Quantock - he sounds chirpy, "getting the car fixed, fighting with the ABC and saving some possums, but that’s too long a story".
As we lead into this, an election year, I decide needling him
is the best option. ‘What have we got to talk about?’ I offer.
"Well, it’s going to be very interesting, Alex, and somebody’s got to die, and it’ll either be Mark Latham or John Howard," he deadpans. "It’s the only way it can resolve itself."
Will these questions form the basis of the Quantock Fringe show, then? "There no point in me trying to describe it to you because you can’t know. I don’t know. I haven’t decided - I’ll just fill my head with sorts of bibs and bobs and a few days before the show I’ll start putting it together." Anyone who’s seen Quantock perform onstage knows that’s the way it works best for him - and it can be a very hit and miss affair.
Previous issues to have loomed large on Quantock shows have involved detention centres and Australian foreign policy, Prime Ministers (especially the incumbent), warfare in far off places, things like that: "issues that haven’t really gone away," he adds with a warning note. And yet, there are aspects of Quantockian humour which are more observed in the avoiding, despite his bristling reputation. "I do have a bit of a reputation," he agrees helpfully. "Hard won over many years." And I’d noted he performs the occasional corporate gig, not least of which for the Victorian Premier. How does he - Rod Quantock - work out how not to offend his hosts in such circumstances?
"These are interesting questions because some things I do turn down on principle," he ventures. "When people employ me in that capacity I agree to do it on mutually agreeable terms. I suppose. I’m not going to go and spread a foul smell."
He guffaws - "I tried it, and usually it doesn’t work."
A postscript: apparently a staffer for a senior minister in the SA govt turned down the idea of sending his boss along to Quantock’s show on the grounds it was ‘too left wing’. Quantock would enjoy the small irony of a small mind at work.
Alex Wheaton
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Rod Quantock performs from Tues 24 Feb at the Nova Cinema.
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