The Saturday Quiz

I love having Laurence on the show. he's done it a bunch of times before, but never solo. Will he prove that every time before this one he's been the dunce? Or will he somehow jag a whole bunch of questions that sit in his sweet spot? You'll have to listen to find out.

Duncan Fellows is a dear old friend who I have known since we were both teenagers. His effortless charm has endeared him to audiences of tv shows like Deadloch and The Messenger and will no doubt do so again in the soon to be released tv series He Had it Coming and Reckless. He was even married to my partner in the excellent tv series The Letdown.Next week sees the Melbourne International Film Festival screening of a movie he’s in, Zombucha - A hilarious and big-hearted horror comedy about a couple whose hopes of striking it rich in the fermented beverage game, are shattered when their homemade kombucha attains sentience and a thirst for blood.Get tickets to the two MIFF screenings of Zombucha here:https://miff.com.au/program/film/zombucha#top

Lorin Clarke and Andrew Farrell are both the directors of documentaries about iconic Australian voices. One tinged with a kiwi accent, the other still bearing the slight Scottish brogue of his childhood. Lorin's film “But Also John Clarke” is about her father, the much loved satirist John Clarke, and Andrew's is about the Australian singer and icon “Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Man”Find tickets to screenings here:https://miff.com.au/program/film/but-also-john-clarke#tophttps://miff.com.au/program/film/jimmy-barnes-working-class-man#top

I've been bugging Mark to come back and do the quiz for ages. He was the Australian Celebrity Mastermind champion! He is also the presenter of Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? which is a documentary about the housing crisis which you can - and should - watch on Binge right after you listen to this episode.

Ash Flanders is an award winning actor and writer currently starring alongside Sigrid Thornton and Yael Stone in Melbourne Theatre Co's production of Mother Play. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Paula Vogel, Mother Play tells the intimate story of a mother and her two children over the course of several decades of the late 20th century as they push and pull apart, driven by love and compassion and deep, deep hurt. Get your tickets to Mother Play here:https://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2025/mother-play/

Bit of a different one - just John talking to himself for a while.

Most performers I know have all had one of those anxiety filled nightmares of finding yourself on stage on opening night, with no idea what the play is about, who your character is, or what your lines are. So it is a special kind of masochist who would willingly put themselves in exactly that situation. Nadine Garner and Fayssal Bazzi are two such masochists. They are about to take on Iranian writer and theatre maker Nassim Soleimanpour's new play: ECHO: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen. Each night a new performer takes to the stage not knowing what is going to be asked of them. Unrehearsed and deliberately unprepared, the script becomes their only guide as they journey through the story of the playwright, connected live from his home in Berlin. ECHO is an invitation to consider what home means to each of us. Fusing new technology with the oldest tricks in the book, this is an ambitious, magical and profound production where no one travels yet everybody is present.

A charismatic, egocentric strongman politician with contempt for the population he leads, rides roughshod over the conventions of democracy to drive through decisions he makes, having little regard for opinions other than his own.Sound familiar?If it does, then I am slightly surprised, since this play has not been performed in Australia for thirty years!The Bell Shakespeare production of Coriolanus has just opened at the Neilson Nutshell in Sydney, tranferring to Melbourne's Arts Centre in late July.Two of the cast members take on this week's quiz - Gareth Reeves and Marco Chiappi.Get tickets to Coriolanus here:https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/coriolanus

My eldest sister Louise is one of the most avid listeners to this podcast. So when I told her it was likely I wasn't going to be able to put out an episode for the second week in a row, her disappointment was such that I could convince her to step in to make it happen. On this episode she is joined by her husband Martin and they both do very well at the quiz.Hope you enjoy the listen.