Lee and Victoria weren’t the only ones to love The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower by Paul Hogan… Here is what the QBD crew thought:
When beloved Aussie larrikin Paul Hogan first appeared on our TV screens back in 1971 – as the titular ‘tap-dancing knife thrower’ on long-running Channel 9 variety show New Faces – very few viewers would have realised that they were witnessing a milestone moment in Australian culture, the advent of not just an incredible career but a global phenomenon.
At the time of this fumbling first foray the man now known universally as ‘Hoges’ already had a wife and four kids and was famously working as a rigger on the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge – hardly the typical recipe for superstardom, then or now – but soon enough his ragged sense of humour, undeniable charisma and everyman appeal had won over hearts in first his homeland and then all around the world.
The down-to-earth and self-deprecating nature of Hogan’s public persona is replicated in his writing, his first autobiography echoing the comic’s own ‘fish out of water’ wonderment as he first became the face of Australia to the world, courtesy a series of wildly-successful advertising campaigns in which he became our de facto ambassador, and then a superstar in his own right as the independently-financed Crocodile Dundee franchise – which he thought-up, co-wrote and starred in – became one of the wildest and least-expected success stories in the history of modern cinema.
At its heart, The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower is an endearing tale of a man confident enough in his own skin to do things steadfastly his own way, and how this laidback approach to life manifested in doors constantly opening for Hogan all around the planet and causing one amazing life-long adventure – the scintillating saga of one self-described “lucky bastard”.
