Con the Fruiterer

Last updated
Con the Fruiterer
First appearance The Comedy Company
Created by Mark Mitchell
Portrayed byMark Mitchell
In-universe information
OccupationFruit shop owner
FamilyRoula, Toula, Soula, Voula, Foula, Agape (daughters), Nick, Rick (sons)
SpouseMarika
NationalityGreek

Con Dikaletus aka Con the Fruiterer is a fictional character created by Australian actor and comedian Mark Mitchell.

Contents

Character

Mitchell created the character after being served by two Greek Australian stall holders at Glenferrie Markets in 1984. [1] The character became known nationally from regular appearances in The Comedy Company , for which he also created the character of Con's wife, Marika. According to Comedy Company writer Ian McFadyen, "Con the Fruiterer was an attempt to represent that whole immigrant subculture which until recently has been totally ignored except as a stereotype token wog". Con has six daughters, Roula, Toula, Soula, Voula, Foula and Agape. (A running joke being he approves of his alike named daughters but Agape is the ugly, stupid or otherwise black sheep of the cohort) He also has two sons, Nick and Rick.

Con's catchphrases "coupla days", "bewdiful" and "doesn't madda" entered the Australian vernacular. [2] In August 1989, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke appeared in a sketch on The Comedy Company the premise of presenting Con with Australian citizenship. In reply to Con's question as to when Hawke was going to fix up the country, Hawke took great delight in responding "a coupla days". [3]

The characters of Con and Marika continue to make appearances on and off television. Con the Fruiterer was appointed Moomba Monarch (popularly called King of Moomba) in 1989, [4] despite opposition from the Greek community. [5] [6] Greek-Australian comedian Nick Giannopoulos would later say, "Mark's a great impersonator, but I'm not a big fan of non-wogs playing wogs. I felt very uncomfortable when Mark was doing those pieces." [7]

Con's Bewdiful Australia: A Guide to the Second-Best Country in the World was published by Penguin Books in 1989. [8] Although written by Mitchell, authorship was credited to 'Con Dikaletis'. A condensed version of the book, read by Mitchell as Con, was released on audio cassette. A spinoff series Con's Bewdiful Holiday Videos was screened on the Ten Network in 1997. Con also fronted a campaign urging Australians to eat more fruit in 2010. [9]

Discography

Singles

YearTitlePeak chart positionsAlbum
AUS
[10]
1988"A Cuppla Days"48 The Comedy Company Album

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.

YearNominee / workAwardResultRef.
1989 "A Cuppla Days" Best Comedy Release Nominated [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sketch comedy</span> Series of short comedy scenes or vignettes

Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.Sketch comedy is a genre within American television that includes a multitude of schemes and identities.

Rubbery Figures was a satirical rubber puppet series and segment that screened in Australia in various forms from 1984 to 1990. The series ran on the ABC until 1988, when it was axed and subsequently revived as a segment on Seven Network's Fast Forward in April 1989. It featured puppets of major political and social characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moomba Festival</span> Labour Day festival in Melbourne, Australia

Moomba is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labour Day long weekend, from Friday to the second Monday in March. Moomba is culturally important to Melbourne, having been celebrated since 1955, and regularly attracts up to a million people, with a record attendance of 3.8 million set in 2018.

Nicholas Giannopoulos is a Greek Australian stand-up comedian, stage, TV and film actor and film director. He is best known for his comedy stage show Wogs Out of Work alongside George Kapiniaris, the television sitcom Acropolis Now and The Wog Boy film series and has been described as "Australia's leading exponent of "wog" humour".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Anthony All Stars</span> Australian musical comedy trio

The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who initially performed together between 1984 and 1994. The group were an acoustic trio, originally comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals. The group reformed in 2014, with Paul Livingston replacing Fidler on guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliot Goblet</span> Australian comedian

Elliot Goblet is a comedy character created by the Australian comedian Jack Levi. The character is known for the deadpan delivery of one-line jokes. The style compares with the American comedian Steven Wright but developed independently. At first Goblet appeared with round glasses and a goatee beard, but the beard was later removed.

<i>The Comedy Company</i> Australian TV series or program

The Comedy Company was an Australian sketch comedy television series that first aired from 16 February 1988 until 11 November 1990 on Network Ten. It was created and directed by cast member Ian McFadyen, and co-directed and produced by Jo Lane.

Christopher Franklin is an Australian stand-up comedian and former sailor for the Royal Australian Navy. He is most famous for performing the song "Bloke", which was certified platinum, reached No. 1 on the ARIA Charts, and was the twelfth-biggest-selling single in Australia in 2000. He lives in Launceston, Tasmania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Coustas</span> Australian actress and comedian

Mary Coustas is an Australian actress, comedian and television personality and writer. Originally from Melbourne, Coustas often performs as the character "Effie", a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian prone to malapropisms. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at Deakin University in Melbourne, majoring in performing arts and sub-majoring in journalism.

Mary-Anne Fahey is an Australian actress, comedian and writer.

Mark Mitchell is an Australian actor, comedian and contemporary artist, best known for his roles in the sketch comedy series The Comedy Company, most especially his character of Greek Australian fruit store proprieter Con the Fruiterer.

<i>The Wog Boy</i> 2000 Australian film

The Wog Boy is a 2000 Australian comedy film directed by Aleksi Vellis and starring Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo, Lucy Bell, Abi Tucker, Stephen Curry, Tony Nikolakopoulos and Derryn Hinch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Ballard (comedian)</span> Australian comedian, radio and television presenter

Thomas Colin Ballard is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter.

Wog is a racial slur used to refer, in British English, to black and south Asian people, and, in Australian English, to people from the Mediterranean region such as Southern Europeans. Whilst it is extremely derogatory in British English, in Australian English it may be considered non-offensive depending on how the word is used, due to reclamation and changing connotations.

The Third Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 6 March 1989 at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. First Australian host Greedy Smith of Mental As Anything was assisted by presenters George Martin, Jono & Dano, Barry Bissell of Take 40 Australia, Peter Collins, Peter Jamieson, Jonathan King and Brian Smith to distribute 24 awards. There were no live performances and the awards were not televised.

Gerald William Connolly is an Australian comedian, actor, impressionist and pianist. He is best known for his satirical caricatures of public figures such as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Neville Wran, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Bill Collins and Dame Joan Sutherland, amongst many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian comedy</span> Australian television series

Australian comedy refers to the comedy and humour performed in or about Australia or by the people of Australia. Australian humour can be traced to various origins, and today is manifested in a diversity of cultural practices and pursuits. Writers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson helped to establish a tradition of laconic, ironic and irreverent wit in Australian literature, while Australian politicians and cultural stereotypes have each proved rich sources of comedy for artists from poet C. J. Dennis to satirist Barry Humphries to iconic film maker Paul Hogan, each of whom have given wide circulation to Australian slang.

Wogs Out of Work is an Australian play which was written by Nick Giannopoulos, Simon Palomares, and Maria Portesi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Cuppla Days</span> 1988 single by Con the Fruiterer

"A Cuppla Days" is a single released by Con the Fruiterer, a character portrayed by Mark Mitchell in the TV series The Comedy Company. The single was released in November 1988 as the second and final single from the TV series' debut studio album The Comedy Company Album. The song peaked at number 48 on the ARIA Charts.

Sooshi Mango is an Australian comedy troupe founded in 2015. The group consists of two brothers, Joe and Carlo Salanitri, and their best friend, Andrew Manfre. Sooshi Mango is best known for their comedy skits, acts, videos, series and live shows, paying homage to their experiences growing up in an Italian family, and around Italians, Greeks, and ethnic cultures living in Australia.

References

  1. ↑ "Con The Fruiterer's secret". ABC news. 2005-11-12. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Con the Fruiterer to give Crace in Canberra". Canberra Times. 23 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Mitchell, Tony, "Wogs Still Out of Work: Australian television comedy as colonial discourse" (pdf), Australasian Drama Studies, no. April 1992 – via Multicultural Research Library
  4. ↑ Craig Bellamy, Gordon Chisholm, Hilary Eriksen (17 Feb 2006) Moomba: A festival for the people.: "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2011-03-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) PDF pp 17-22
  5. ↑ Schwartz, Larry (4 February 1989). "Greek uproar over Con the Moomba Monarch". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  6. ↑ White, Peter (27 February 1989). "Con the Fruiterer: A step ahead or a racist joke?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  7. ↑ Barber, Lynden (26 February 2000). "Comedy community declares - the race is on". The Australian.
  8. ↑ Con's Bewdiful Australia: A Guide to the Second-Best Country in the World Penguin, 1989 ISBN   0140127100
  9. ↑ "Con the Fruiterer is back for a new health campaign". Herald Sun. 2010-01-21.
  10. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 64.
  11. ↑ "ARIA Awards Best Comedy Release". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 17 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.