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John Safran.
 John
Safran has the unique ability to get people talking. Ever since
he first appeared on our screens in the ABC's 'Race Around The
World' in 1997, he's been making television that encourages
talk. Whether he's streaking through Jerusalem, door knocking
as Prince or trying to join the Ku Klux Klan despite being Jewish;
people feel an innate need to discuss what they've seen him
do. It's hardly surprising then that Safran himself is able
to talk at length and keep it interesting.
The final episode of 'John Safran Vs God' - which has just been released on DVD, hence our chat - saw Safran being exorcised in the US. And guess what? It's got people talking. "Even just like people in the street and stuff, I get it about a dozen times a day, a stranger will come up to me and ask me if it was real or not. You know how when 'The Passion of the Christ' came out everyone suddenly went 'hang on, how did that film make 200 million?' And it's like, there are things that are just floating out there in the - I can't believe I'm going to use this word - zeitgeist; that the media generally doesn't tap on. The media's a bit smart-arsey and a bit secular, I reckon. I've just pretty unintentionally tapped on that. I reckon there's just tons and tons and tons of Australians who think about spiritual issues like that and then there's this dude on TV getting exorcised and that's really tapped into it."
His next thought is a good example of the perverse logic that Safran posseses. "Bizarrely, considering how weird that episode was, it was probably one of the more mainstream things I've done. I've touched on something that tons of regular people kind of think about - as opposed to doing satire on Ray Martin. Sure that's fine, but it's something that, really, media savvy people are into. But you wonder how much the punter on the corner cares."
As for why he hasn't addressed the exorcism - there was no narration for the entire episode - it turns out the reason is simple. "It's because I was lulled into those... whatever state it was, and then lulled out of them, but I don't remember much in between, so it was kinda like there's nothing to say. He could have just hypnotised me, I'm not saying it was definitely an exorcism or anything, so I just left it open there." He quickly adds, "But I didn't mean to distress people as much as some people have been distressed by it."
It would be selling 'John Safran Vs God' short to suggest the exorcism was the series high point. There was also the Fatwah on Rove ("He's fine with it. I think he was happy being presented as once being involved with community television!"), getting beaten by Buddhist Monks in Japan, door-knocking in Salt Lake City spreading the word of atheism, auditioning for the Harlem Gospel Choir and trying to lift a curse on the Australian football team amongst much more.
"I was pleasantly surprised that the show was broadly taken as it was meant: which was me being curious and me being a smart alec; but not really trying to be mean. The huge backlashes we got were for just three things: me vomiting on camera, me sacrificing a goat, and not clearing up what the exorcism was about. But there was no backlash of religious groups, we just didn't get hundreds of emails from upset Muslims, Jews, Scientologists. By the end of the series the criticism was that it was too pro-Christian, so I'm quite happy with that result."
While currently doing some casual radio work on Triple J and RRR, Safran's thoughts have now turned to the future. "I think I might do something in a slightly different form. I might do some one-hour specials. I reckon I'm going to have to do something in some form on relationships. I'm just coming up with different ideas in a few different forms and they all seem to come back to that theme: ex-girlfriends, relationships, all that kind of stuff. Everyone's been fucked over by that kind of stuff, so maybe people can relate to it."
And I'll bet right now they'll be talking about it too.
Wade Howland
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'John Safran vs God' is out now through Madman.
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