Steve Abbott (comedian)

Last updated

Steve Abbott
The Sandman (Stephen Abbott) & Flacco (Paul Livingston).jpg
Steve Abbott (background) and Paul Livingston
Born
Stephen Abbott

(1956-03-24) 24 March 1956 (age 69)
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Other namesThe Sandman

Stephen Abbott (born 24 March 1956) is an Australian comedian and author, also known under the comedic moniker of The Sandman or occasionally Sandy. [1]

Contents

Career

Abbott is an Australian comedian, actor, author, poet, screenwriter and musician.

He played guitar in the band The Castanet Club together with fellow performers Glenn Butcher, Mikey Robins, Angela Moore, Maynard [2] and long-time collaborator Warren Coleman. The band was formed in Newcastle in 1982, and members each adopted a persona for their performances, Abbott's being 'Johnny Goodman'. The Castanet Club toured all around Australia, performed at the Edinburgh Festival, and featured in the film The Castanet Club: A Movie You Can Dance To. [3]

Abbott evolved his Johnny Goodman character into 'The Sandman' for Australian radio and television throughout the nineties. The Sandman appeared regularly from 1993 to 2000 on Australian national youth radio as a breakfast host and performer. [4]

Abbott has written a number of plays including The Headbutt (which he co-directed with Neil Armfield for Belvoir Street Theatre). He has also written several books, comedy CDs and radio comedy series, and hosted two comedy variety TV series for SBS. [5]

In 2004 Abbott co-produced, wrote and appeared in Sandman in Siberia, a documentary in which he and his mother (Evelyn Abbott) return to their ancestral home in Siberia in an attempt to reunite with long lost cousins (one of the highest rating programs of the year on Australia's SBS Network). [6]

Together with Warren Coleman, Abbott has written several feature screenplays, including The Infernal Optimist (2007) based on Linda Jaivin’s novel, Birdbrain loosely based on his ABC radio podcast, and The Day We Lost The H-Bomb based on Barbara Moran’s book. They both worked on the screenplay of the animated feature The Legend of the Underzoo in Canada. The pair also created the children’s live-action feature Stripey and the animated feature Super Space Rabbits. Additionally, they collaborated with songwriter Dave Faulkner of the Hoodoo Gurus on the book version of the They're a Weird Mob musical. [7]

Bibliography

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleType
1988 Young Einstein Brian AsprinFeature film
1990 The Castanet Club Johnny GoodmanFilm
1996 Children of the Revolution MalenkovFeature film
2003 You Can't Stop The Murders Feature film
2004The ScreeFilm

Television

YearTitleRoleType
1993The Comedy SaleTV series
1996 Good News Week The SandmanTV series
1998 Good News Weekend The SandmanTV series
1999 GNW Night Lite The SandmanTV series
2000 The Fat TV series
2004–05 In Siberia Tonight HostTV series
2005Sandman in SiberiaThe SandmanDocumentary
2005Under the GrandstandTV series during Ashes in England
2007 The Sideshow with Paul McDermott TV series

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "Steve Abbott". newsle.com/. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Steve Abbott". newsle.com/. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  3. ↑ "Steve Abbott".
  4. ↑ "Steve Abbott".
  5. ↑ "Steve Abbott".
  6. ↑ "Sandman In Siberia". www.dvdbits.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "Steve Abbott".
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.