Rod Quantock: First Man Standing - Forty Years a Fool
One of Australia’s most prominent left wing comedians, Rod Quantock, has a new show playing at Trades Hall in Melbourne. It runs from August 6th – September 6th Wednesday – Saturday nights.

The show kicks off at 8pm every night and bookings can be made through Comedy @ Trades or tickets are available at the door. Prices are: $30 & $20 concession on Wednesdays & Thursdays and $35 & $25 concession Fridays & Saturdays.

For more information visit: http://quantock.com.au

Rod has generously offered to donate $10 from every ticket sold on August 28 to the Yarra Campaign Against the Tunnel (YCAT). Please try and come along. The details are: Thursday, 28th August 2008 at Trades Hall, Carlton South @ 8:00pm, Tickets: $30, Bookings: comedyattrades.com.au or 03 9659 5699 or at the door

The year was 1968. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr were assassinated, Nixon was elected. Saddam Hussein gained power in 1968. So did Yasir Arafat. And, closer to our hearts, it was the year Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark was born.

Co-incidentally 1968 was the year that the award-winning Rod Quantock first strolled onto a stage. (‘Quantock is an amiable bufoon.’ The Melbourne Herald. 1968)

Ten tears later and Rod was opening Australia’s first performer owned and operated theatre restaurant, The Comedy Café & Banana Lounge. (‘Sophisticated satire, unpretentious, daffy… Quantock’s easy rambling fills the stage. Clever, simple and acid… a comedian for thinkers.’ The Melbourne Times, 1978)

Another decade on and Rod was the talk of the Edinburgh Festival and a Perrier Award nominee. (‘For sheer cheek and inventiveness, the amazing Rod Quantock must take the honours. Bizarre, fresh, theatrically dangerous, unpredictable.’ The Guardian, UK 1988)

In 1998 he was taking on the Kennett Government and selling out shows around the country. (‘We walked away entertained, reflective and finally, amazed. If you only see one comedy show this year, make it Rod Quantock.’ The Daily Telegraph, Sydney. 1998)

In between he established the art of stand-up comedy, turned public transport into a venue and, among many other achievements, co-conceived and starred in ‘Australia, You’re Standing In It’, ABC-TV’s first Melbourne comedy production and the door-opener for all that followed.

Now, forty years on, in 2008 he’s still at it with FIRST MAN STANDING.

FIRST MAN STANDING is a walk down Memory Tollway (Rod remembers it when it was a Lane) with a foundation member of contemporary Australian comedy.

From his first routine in the Melbourne University Architect’s Revue to his musings on contemporary events, Australia’s most seriously funny comedian Rod will reprieve the things that have made him laugh for the last four decades and set a course for the next xx decades.

‘A national treasure.’ The Australian

‘We are sure his show is probably good but it clashes with our branch meetings at Trades Hall on Wednesday nights.’ The Socialist newspaper