Grahame Bond

Vocation

Lifestyle

Family

Australian architect, writer, actor, comedian, composer, television personality, and documentary filmmaker. Multi-talented, Bond is, as well, an advertising executive, a TV host, a playwright and an adventurer. Grahame Bond began his career in entertainment at Sydney University in the 1960s as a founding student member of the Architecture Revue. He wrote and performed (as 'Buttons') in Hamlet on Ice, 1971-72 and wrote and appeared in "The Comedy Game," ABC 1971. An episode of this show became the pilot for the enormously popular Australian TV series, "Aunty Jack," 1972-73, repeated 1974. Along with an ensemble cast of crazy characters, Bond appeared as the eponymous lead -- a motorbike and sidecar-riding mustachioed woman who wore a boxing glove and constantly threatened the audience with her deep-voiced catchphrase, "I'll rip yer bloody arms off." The character Aunty Jack had been created by Bond in an ABC radio show in 1969. The TV series included another of his alter egos, militant glam-rock 'Kevin Kavanagh butcher extraordinaire' who was noted for his song "A Man, His meat and His Music." The groundbreaking Aunty Jack show had only 13 episodes and was notorious for its violence and shocking satire. Its success ensured that other shows soon followed, including "Flash Nick From Jindavick & Wollongong," "The Brave," (both 1974) and the "Off Show," 1977. Aunty Jack introduced ABC viewers to color television when the technology was introduced to Australian screens (2/28/1975, 11:57 PM, Sydney). Aunty Jack appeared on British television as "Not the Aunty Jack Show" on LWT. In 1978, Bond co-wrote the musical "Boys Own McBeth," which toured Australia successfully for two years and also played in Los Angeles, 1981. He wrote and produced the musical Captain Bloody, 1984-85 for The Elizabethan Theatre Trust. He worked extensively with his musical partner Rory O'Donoghue, winning in 1981 the AFI music award for the "Fatty Finn" movie soundtrack. His jingles have included those for David Jones and the Kimbies ad. Aunty Jack and other Bond characters appeared in "The Grahame Bond Show" on commercial telly in 1982. From July-October 1985, Bond's show, "News Free Zone," appeared on ABC-TV. A highlight of Bond's career was performing stand-up comedy at the opening of Sanctuary Cove on the same bill as Frank Sinatra in January 1988. In 1990, Bond opened his own Sydney-based advertising agency, winning many blue chip clients before selling it in 1996 for the chance to travel to some remarkable places as an adventurer. He spent time in Jordan with Australian archaeologists and from this experience, produced a half-hour documentary "The Volunteer." He has trekked in Nepal, canoed in Kakadu (Northern Territory), cycled from Hanoi to Saigon in Vietnam and worked in Papua/New Guinea shooting another documentary. Interested in Archaeology, he helped excavate Pella and a Hellenistic amphitheatre in Cyprus. On 7/29/1994, Bond was given the highest award by the Australian Writer's Guild (the Awgie) for his contribution to the industry. In 1996, Shock Records released a CD compilation of Bond and O'Donoghue's work called "The Auntyology 1972-1985" (in which their mid-70s single, "Farewell Aunty Jack" has been claimed as the first picture disc 45rpm). It was while overseas that Bond was asked to host "Better Homes and Gardens," Australia's triple Logie Award-winning lifestyle program. He has appeared on the show since 1997 providing advice on home renovations. Bond currently appears as the Merlin-like alchemist, The Ancient One, in television's sword and sorcery show, "BeastMaster," 1999-, an Australian-Canadian co-production that is filmed on Australia's Gold Coast. In 1999 he was engaged to singer Cathi Ogden. Link to Wikipedia biography