Billionaire Frank Lowy’s son Peter doing stand-up comedy in the US under a bizarre alias
HAVE you heard the one about the high-profile Australian mega rich lister moonlighting as a stand-up comic in the US under a bizarre alias? No, we’re not joking. The secret life of Westfield co-chief executive Peter Lowy has emerged.
NSW
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LOL — the heir to shopping centre magnate Sir Frank Lowy’s $8.26 billion Westfield fortune has been revealed moonlighting as a stand-up comedian in the United States.
Son Peter Lowy’s day job is co-chief executive of the Westfield Group, which is in the process of being sold for $30 billion.
But — all jokes aside — by night in the clubs of Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the 59-year-old is Pete Drysdale, “laugh wonder from down under!”.
Mr Lowy lives in Los Angeles and made his debut as Drysdale at a sold-out show in New York in June, telling jokes about getting divorced and dating.
In performances as part of Sunda’s Straightjacket Comedy Tour Mr Lowy tells the audience he is a former Beverly Hills banker to a “storeyed oil family”.
“Tell them I just bought my way to stardom, don’t worry about it,” he says in a promotional video.
He’s asked in the video: “What does a man who’s been married for 31 years fantasise about?”
“Leaving,” he replies.
“Never done this before in my life. Ever,” he says of doing stand-up. “Never even thought about it.”
His co-stars on the tour include headliner Sunda Croonquist, who runs the LA Comedy School which is where Mr Lowy first tried out stand-up.
Other comedians featured on the tour were a man billed as a criminal who served 23 years of a life sentence and a psychologist to the stars of Beverly Hills.
Pete Drysdale is listed in the credits as an executive producer of the show, which toured from June to September.
“This is my first time on tour ... I hope I’m better at it than the first time I did marriage”
In December Mr Lowy was on hand to announce that Westfield, the company his father Sir Frank co-founded with a single shopping centre in Bankstown 30 years ago, is being sold for $30 billion to the biggest shopping mall company in the world, French group Unibail-Rodamco.
The deal is expected to be completed in June.
Contacted while travelling yesterday, Mr Lowy confirmed his “second” job but said he did not have time to talk about it.
Ms Croonquist, who was once sued by her own mother-in-law for a joke she told on stage, says “Mr Drysdale” is hilarious on stage.
“He is very special as well as being a gentleman. He is also very, very funny,” Ms Croonquist said.
Mr Lowy’s second tour with Ms Croonquist was called HOODZPAH! The Sunda Experience and played in January.
Asked whether more tours were planned she said: “We have to find the time. Mr Drysdale is a very busy man.”
His bio on the marketing material says: “He’s insanely funny, he often skips his meds, and his Australian accent sometimes requires the services of a translator. He literally has millions of secrets that he may or may not reveal on this tour.”
In reality, Mr Lowy was appointed managing director of Westfield in 1997.