Max Gillies Giggles

The name Max means ‘greatest’ and Max Gillies, one could say, is Australia’s greatest parody artist. Further to that a ‘Ghillie’ was an outdoor servant and could Max have been an outsider looking in to serve our insatiable thirst for the inside story on politics.

Max Gillies tells me he doesn’t ‘get to Tasmania enough’ and he recalls a period when he did quite a bit of touring shows in Tassie and tells me he is very much looking forward to getting back to one of, if not his ‘favourite theatre’, when he brings his show ‘Once Were Leaders ‘ to The Theatre Royal in Tassie this month.

Max tells me about how he initially got involved in Parody. It started when he was a youngster at school and he and another entrepreneurial lad decided to ‘take off’ some of their teachers behind the lavatory at playtime. At the ‘dunny auditorium’. During these lunch hours clowning around it happened that one day the music teacher discovered their shenanigans but didn’t register a sour note (pardon the pun) and surprisingly enough approved of Max and his friends’ ingenuity and encouraged it even more so, including to expand their repertoire of parodies.

When Max started his political parodies in adult life, they quickly caught on. This particular show is a tribute to the great scriptwriters he has worked with through the years.

Nowadays he doesn’t utilise the disguises and prosthetics of times past when he played John Howard and Bob Hawke. In those days he needed to’ up age’ but now the politicians he portrays are a little younger than himself! Also nowadays the players don’t necessarily have the colourful characteristics of those of yesteryear.

In fact Max is disappointed with the politicians of today and believes the advent of social media with its 24/7 coverage has made them far more conscious of avoiding saying something they shouldn’t.

Max does however say, that there is in fact more talent outside of the present cabinet and also much more talent in the shadow cabinet.

He bemoans the disappearance of the ‘ratbag’ and lack of wonderful wordsmiths like Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, Clive James and Germaine Greer.

You can see Max Gillies in ‘Once Were Leaders’ at the Theatre Royal on October 16 & 17 at 7.30pm.
Paula Xiberras