Dimensions
155 x 235 x 31mm
Barry Crocker's career as a performer began in the kitchen of his childhood home where, as a ten-year-old, he would amuse his mother with Bing Crosby impersonations. Years later, after stints as a tile maker, wool stacker, sign writer and house painter, Barry discovered amateur theatre. It was not long before he was being paid to do what he loved - entertain.
From his working class beginnings in Geelong through to the crazy days filming 'The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie' and its sequel, 'Bazza' is a warm and irreverent memoir that spans four decades of a remarkable life, and a fascinating period in Australian entertainment history.
Barry has toured the Victorian countryside with a travelling theatre company; worked the "cappuccino-soaked fiver circuit" in Melbourne in the 50s; entertained American troops in Asia and Europe; and been down and out in London and New York in the 60s.
He has sung in seedy nightclubs and lavish theatres; performed on television in its earliest days, and then went on to star in several of his own highly successful variety TV programmes. And, of course, in his role as the iconic, pommy-hating Barry McKenzie, he popularised such Bazza-isms as "making love to the lav" and "pointing Percy at the porcelain".
'Bazza' is filled with anecdotes and set pieces, bit players and stars - over the years Barry has worked with Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis, Barry Humphries, Spike Milligan, Bert Newton, Helen Reddy and the Packer family, among many others. But it has not been a life without hardship. The demands of Barry's career were often at odds with the needs of his family; he has experienced first-hand the pitfalls of ambition and fame.
Told with sincerity and great humour, 'Bazza' is compelling memoir that makes it clear why Barry Crocker is still one of Australia's best-loved entertainers.
