“Your flawless impersonation of the late Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen was a highlight of the evening, nothing but rave reviews.”
Tasmanian Export Awards
“The doctors loved the David Attenborough script.”
Merck, Sharp & Dohme
“From the moment you stepped onto stage, you captivated the audience and your professional approach and capability was evident. The skits were brilliant and resonated with the delegates. Your background work paid off and hit the mark without offence – an art in itself.”
Australian Society of Association Executives
“Thank you very much for your contribution to the anniversary dinner for the Victorian Government. This was a very prestigious event, with high profile politicians and industry leaders as far as the eye could see. The Premier made special mention of your contribution.”
Australian Business Theatre
For over 30 years, on stage or screen, I have enjoyed making people laugh and think, as an actor, comedian, hoax speaker, Master of Ceremonies and a variety of Devil’s Advocate Characters.
I have a wealth of corporate comedy material that can be delivered in a single feature segment (usually via a hoax speech) or interspersed throughout an entire conference or event. This material is often combined with my work as an MC.
Go to the video and audio clips on this page, to gain an insight into my style of humour. Pre-recorded clips are sometimes shown as part of my MC/Facilitation work at conferences.
Bruce Attenborough Opener
One of my most popular comic characters is David Attenborough’s long lost brother, Bruce. This short, tailored routine, which talks about the evolution of your organisation, industry or product, is often used to open a conference, launch or awards presentation. I usually then become the event’s MC.
“Your David Attenborough opener was instrumental in setting the mood for the evening and was a wonderful icebreaker with our staff.”
Westpac
“Thank you for all your help filming our ‘David Attenborough’ themed conference training videos. Your creative ideas, work ethic, patience and commitment to filming overnight, appearing in the most outrageous places, made a huge contribution to the project. Your ability to transform into character was a great experience to watch and you are a true one take wonder.”
Woolworths Liquor Group
“As those in attendance represented the cream of the Meetings Industry, it was not going to be easy to impress them. But impress them you did. Your hilarious opening, which saw naturalist Bruce Attenborough poke fun at our industry, before bursting into a high powered rock song complete with manic dancing, really came out of left field.”
Meetings Industry Association of Australia
Devil’s Advocate Characters
Devil’s advocate characters have a role in even the most serious of conferences and product launches, as their role is to raise, in a dramatic or comic way, the key issues on the minds of the audience. These issues can be quite sensitive or controversial. Once highlighted, such issues can be addressed by a presenter.
Highly effective devil’s advocate characters include:
- A cynical audience member who jumps up from his seat and challenges the speaker.
- A disgruntled customer who highlights a perceived weakness within the client’s organisation. This weakness would generally be one that is about to be improved.
- An arrogant competitor who enters the room by mistake and then boasts about their superiority in a certain area. Again, the area emphasised would be one the client is about to improve.
A grumpy shareholder who wants to know how company performance will be improved.
The use of devil’s advocated characters results in powerful communication that helps to deliver your message in a way that’s fresh and memorable. Importantly, I can integrate any Devil’s Advocate Characters into my role as a Master of Ceremonies and Facilitator.
“The variety of characters, which ranged from Austen Powers and a truckie through to a sales rep and a shareholder, added considerable value to the business presentations by highlighting key messages in a humorous but relevant fashion.”
Nortel Networks
“Graeme helped set the scene and facilitated a couple of relevant themed activities during a Strategy Alignment day for the Dulux business. As a way of getting people’s attention up front, Graeme assumed the character of a Trade Painter and proceeded to ‘tell it like it is’, focused around our theme of the Consumer needing to be at the heart of everything we do.”
Dulux Group
“Many thanks for your fantastic contribution to our recent product launch and roadshow. Your hoax speech as Dr Geoffrey Trescothick and interactive larger-than-life devil’s advocate character, “Trev”, really helped to bring each event to life and make it memorable for a very diverse audience. After seven presentations across Australia, attendee feedback has been the highest in any seminar we have run. This series of events has ensured that the Quantum messages are remembered above the myriad of all others that our clients are inundated with. In follow-up with attendees, it was clear that the core messages stuck, and this paved the way for the next step in our sales process. Because of the entertaining approach, customers were very receptive to what we have to offer. As we were launching a highly specialised and technical IT product, these events could have been very dry, but the humour and quirkiness you injected kept everyone fresh and focused, even at breakfast time! It was also valuable to have some of the genuine, serious material conveyed by Dr Trescothick, while Trev raised important issues that would have been on the audience’s mind in a Q&A format with a difference.”
Quantum