Not Only Fred Dagg: Lorin Clarke on her father's legacy
Lorin Clarke's conversations with her father, John Clarke, just a year before his death, have became the backbone of a documentary which reveals the man behind the iconic public persona.
When Lorin Clarke told her mum, Helen, she was making a documentary about her late father, John, his "partner in every regard" warned that it couldn't just be a story of how great he was.
But Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke reveals John, who left school at 15, created the beloved comedy character Fred Dagg as a young man and later became a satirical writer and TV personality in Australia, was a pretty great New Zealander.
Lorin says she wanted the film to show people who saw John or his black-singleted '70s alter-ego on TV and thought 'I feel like I know that guy', they were not wrong - "It's the same thing that you're seeing that we experienced as a family with him. That's unusual, I think, for somebody to be how they are," she tells Culture 101.
On the suggestion of a podcasting mate, just a year before he died in 2017, Lorin started recording conversations with John in her little home studio.
"He came around, and I said, 'You hold the baby. I'll get you a cup of tea. You sit there. I'll ask you a bunch of questions about your life'."
John Clarke and Lorin Clarke.
Lorin Clarke
Their recorded conversations are woven through Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke, which touches on John's tough childhood in Palmerston North, his "creative big bang", being at Victoria University of Wellington, rugby fandom, and enduring tendency to be a "refusenik".
As a young man, John used to watch TV and think it was only a matter of time before someone created a relatable, Kiwi-as character like Fred Dagg, she says.
When Fred debuted on NZ television in 1973, audiences passionately embraced the character, but almost four years later, he'd become "a shared project with his audience", Lorin says, and John felt like he needed to start over.
"He used to say, you don't want to overstay your welcome… I think if he'd tried to do something else with Fred, or if he'd watered that down in some way, or indeed, if he'd tried something else [in New Zealand] that maybe hadn't worked, it could have been the end of him."
Lorin Clarke is a writer, performer, and director based in Melbourne.
Lorin Clarke
In 1977, John, Helen and baby Lorin moved to Australia, where he reinvented himself as a writer and TV personality.
There was "always a bit of Fred" in everything he did after, though, Lorin says.
"He was very much, 'I am the audience and what I create is between me and my audience'. It's sort of like a wink."
In Australia, John Clarke became well known for his satirical interviews with Bryan Dawe and the 1998 Olympics mockumentary The Games.
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Grieving for John since his death eight years ago has been both excruciating and beautiful, Lorin says.
As his daughter, watching the final cut of Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke at 2am, completely exhausted, was "such a big moment".
"I thought… (whispers) 'Oh my God, there's my dad'.
"I recommend people record their parents and their grandparents and keep their voicemails."
Lorin Clarke with Culture 101's Perlina Lau.
So'omālō Iteni Schwalger
