John Doyle (comedian)
| John Doyle | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Doyle 1953 Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Television host, writer and actor; Radio host; theatre actor; author |
| Years active | 1986 - present |
| Known for | This Sporting Life 1986–2008; Club Buggery 1996–1997; The Dream with Roy and HG 2000 |
John Patrick Doyle AM (born 1953) is an Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.
Doyle was born in Lithgow, New South Wales in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler. He was an altar boy for a time but lost interest in Catholicism with the introduction of contemporary changes in the Mass among other things. Doyle graduated from the then Newcastle Teacher's College in 1973 with a Diploma of Teaching (Secondary English/History). He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Newcastle (NSW) in 1978, before joining the Hunter Valley Theatre Company. He continued to perform while teaching at Glendale High School near Newcastle. He resigned from teaching after seven years and moved to Sydney, where he worked with the Sydney Theatre Company.
Doyle commenced his radio career in 1986, when he and Greig Pickhaver created the characters of "Rampaging" Roy Slaven and HG Nelson. Loosely based on classic TV sporting commentators such as Rex Mossop, Doyle created Slaven as a larger-than-life persona, an utterly opinionated, impossibly talented "sporting everyman" who has represented Australia in every field, won innumerable Melbourne Cups on his ageless mount Rooting King, is on intimate terms with every sporting celebrity (including many top racehorses), as well as film and music stars, politicians and other leaders of society around the world, yet who retains the "common touch" and stands for Australian manhood, fairness, and honesty. Slaven is the name of a well known family from Doyle's home town, Lithgow.
Roy Slaven first appeared on Triple J's breakfast show every Friday during 1985. It was at this time that Doyle met Flinders University arts graduate Greig Pickhaver, while both actors were working as minor characters on an SBS TV series. Pickhaver had similar comedic skills and interests, and had also developed a sporting commentator character called "HG Nelson" while appearing on the Melbourne radio comedy program Punter To Punter in the early '80s. An amalgam of just about every Aussie sports commentator and race caller who ever lived, HG, like Roy, has seen and done it all and is utterly passionate about truth and honesty in sport.
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