SIR JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN
PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND (1725–1987)

Sir Joh, when was it you first realised that you could make other people laugh? Was it the schoolyard thing?

Yes I suppose it was. It’s a defensive thing. There’s always the bully isn’t there? You’ve got to do something about it and with me it was always just making the other kids laugh.

You had trouble with authority at school I think, didn’t you?

Not initially, but I changed schools when I was about eleven and I lost all my old friends and had to make new ones, and there was a teacher who made every attempt to goad me into insurrection so I could be punished within the law. In fact if I’m on about anything, it’s injustice.

Do you remember anything in particular that you did, in those days?

A fellow who is now a meat wholesaler and I once put a big sack of flour in the school chapel’s air-conditioning during the annual re-enactment of the Easter Passion. That was good.

If we can talk now about some of those very ‘Joh’ things, the mannerisms, the little bits of verbal business that everyone hears and just thinks straight away, ‘That’s Joh’.

You’re thinking particularly of the ‘Goodness me’s’ and the ‘Don’t you worry about that’s’ and so on?

Exactly.

The apparent confusion?

Yes.

Some of that was there very early.

How early?

I think we’re probably talking fresh out of school here. I noticed that a lot of people, just in their normal speech, are inclined to fumble about a bit and that, by exaggerating, I was able to strike a chord. I didn’t very often use a script in those days either, which is another thing. And it’s quite handy to have all your ideas just pile up and crash into each other because it gives you time to think, as well as, hopefully, with any real luck, getting a decent-sized laugh.

I know you’ve probably been asked this a thousand times before, but who are the other comics you most admire?

Oh, Joan Rivers.

She’s great.

I mean, can we talk? The woman’s fantastic. The first time I saw her: heart attack.

Yes.

Really. Literally. Off the bed on to the floor, rolling about, in a ball, need for air, the full catastrophe.

But not an influence as such.

No, I don’t think so. Different style, different subject matter.

Who did influence you then?

Well, I think my parents. There was always a lot of laughter in our home and I think that’s terribly important. The Keystone Cops.

The chaos?

Yes, the way a chase would just start up and people would be chasing, no reason, no nothing and there’d be haystacks with people’s running legs sticking out of them. And I suppose to a great extent I’ve tried to do that with language.

It is often said that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy.

Do you believe that?

My word.

Are you the sad clown? The Commedia del’Arte clown?

Well, I think I’m a very Australian clown. I think I’m a very Australian clown. I’m not immune to life’s bleaker side, obviously, but I don’t think I’m consumed by it either. I frequently find, for instance, the things which worry people, a lot, a lot of the things which worry people very badly, I find very funny. Personally, I find them very very funny, and I wouldn’t want that to sound as if I don’t care.

I didn’t take it in that sense.

Good.

Before we go, Sir Joh, you’ve made a lot of great humour in your time. You have a lot of great jokes. Which joke would you consider to be the joke, of all the ones you’ve performed?

That’s a difficult question, just casting my mind back now, as we speak. There is great emotional pull for me for the car that ran on water. I always thought that was very funny.

Yes.

Very very funny. But I suppose in terms purely of audience response, sheer laughter, which is the ultimate measure of this thing, when I ran for Prime Minister.

Yes that was always my favourite.

Thanks. Yes I thought that went pretty well. I thought it was pretty funny.

Why do you think it actually worked as well as it did?

Various factors. First of all, let me say that it had been done before. It wasn’t an original idea, people had been…

But you brought something to it didn’t you?

Well I like to think so. I had a lot of luck with the timing. For instance, for a start I announced I was running for Prime Minister when there wasn’t an election on.

Yes.

Pretty funny. Pretty funny.

Yes it was.

Right from the kick-off, I mean that is pretty funny. Then, an election was called, and where was I?

Disneyland.

Disneyland. Pretty funny. Pretty funny. Pretty funny. You’ve got to say that’s pretty funny. I had a lot of luck with the timing. It couldn’t have been better for me. There I am running for Prime Minister when there’s no election and then there is an election and I’m at Disneyland, being photographed with big-nosed people in the background and making no sense…I mean it was pretty funny.

Couldn’t believe your luck.

Couldn’t believe my luck. On a plate. Literally on a plate.

Sir Joh, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, you’ve been a wonderful audience.