Andrew O’Keefe: ‘I want to make a difference’
TELEVISION game host and former lawyer Andrew O’Keefe talks about what he has learnt from life so far and growing up on the north shore.
North Shore
Don't miss out on the headlines from North Shore. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Famous lawyer Geoffrey Robertson selling house at Longueville
- Simon Baker’s directorial debut Breath premieres in Australia
HE may be a formidable game show host, former lawyer and father-of-three, but walking back through the grand sandstone gates of his Lane Cove alma mater, Andrew O’Keefe is a schoolboy again.
O’Keefe clearly remembers catching the 250 bus from his Mosman home to St Ignatius College, Riverview, every day. Throwing their famous boaters from bus windows as they roared down River Rd, and the ‘not-always-friendly’ rivalry with the neighbouring Shore boys. And how could he forget the morning he got his driver’s license — and the way a taxi ran into him on Chandos St, St Leonards, that same afternoon — with eight Riverview boys and their backpacks in the car.
“I look back at my school days very fondly — I was pretty much a straight-a student,” O’Keefe told the North Shore Times. “I was one of those straight A students though, who also liked to create mischief. Mostly for comical effect, but of course there were several teachers who didn’t think it was all that funny.”
Growing up ‘pretty much on’ Clifton Gardens Beach, O’Keefe, now 46, was a north shore boy from a famous north shore family — only he didn’t realise it until much later.
His father Barry O’Keefe was the Mayor of Mosman for 10 years, a Supreme Court judge and ICAC Commissioner before passing away in 2014, aged 80.
I look back at my school days very fondly — I was pretty much a straight-a student-O’Keefe
His uncle was Aussie icon Johnny O’Keefe, whose songs Shout! and Wild One remain a respected part of the nation’s rock history even four decades after his tragic death in 1978. The O’Keefe brothers were famously nicknamed the ‘wild one and the mild one’.
“Although Dad wasn’t that mild if you knew him, and he claimed he was a better singer too,” O’Keefe joked.
“It was a steady stream of councillors and slightly crackpot residents at our place, but if you went to my grandma Thelma’s place, all of my Uncle John’s famous friends would always be dropping in.
“You’d be playing Scrabble with grandma who would be smoking her Benson and Hedges and the phone would ring — and she’d come back half an hour later saying ‘ah sorry darling that was Graham Kennedy’. Then someone would knock on the door and she’d come back saying ‘oh that was Kamahl’.
“But I didn’t know that was particularly special back then of course — but we used to have weekend sleepovers there, they were such great fun.”
If I were a Youtube star that would be far more impressive-O’Keefe
As a kid, he said was smart but ‘spirited’ — just like his own offspring Barney, 15, Rory, 12, Olive, 7 — who study at Scots College, Fort St High and Kincoppal Rose Bay.
Olive ‘didn’t get in’ to Loreto Kirribilli where O’Keefe’s older sisters went as girls — despite his late father Barry once donating two 17th century chalices to the school.
“You look at your teenage children and you think ‘I don’t remember being like that’, but in fact they are very much like me as a teenager,” he said.
“I was the one corralling other students to mass displays of comedy … these days you’d almost call it a flash mob.
“Like one day in Year 8 we were learning about trench warfare and I encouraged the whole class to hide behind the desks so when the teacher came in … I called out ‘chaaarge’ and we all came out from behind the desks.
“I also remember tricking the new French teacher that the word for TV remote control was really a lewd word, so every time they asked for it, everyone had a giggle.”
His kids are mostly unfazed by having a famous father though — apart from being able to call in a favour at an opportune moment — something O’Keefe remembers well from his own childhood, when his dad Barry was the mayor of Mosman and his uncle Johnny a famous rock star.
“I don’t think it’s terribly impressive to have a dad on TV these days because kids see themselves on screen all the time, and the TV is certainly the least engaging screen,” he said.
“If I were a Youtube star that would be far more impressive.
“Although I think they’ve learned that the occasional name dropping at the right moment can get them a favour.
“I think I was about seven to 17 when Dad was Mayor and all the local shopkeepers knew exactly who you were — you could get an extra fig in your bag in Arena’s fruit shop, or an extra shot of something in your coffee — I later found it was Dad’s bottle of Sambuca they hid under the counter,” he laughed.
“There was also a lot of comedy to watch Dad, who was a five foot four bald man with glasses, swan around in fat controller robes — that always gave us a giggle.
“I remember my sister Vanessa literally riding in the back of the mayoral car with a brown paper bag on her head, she was so embarrassed.”
Meeting the Monte girls at North Sydney after school, catching up with his sister’s Loreto friends, being ‘naughty’ on the banks of the Lane Cove River and having milkshakes at Lane Cove shops before getting the bus home are all things he won’t forget. A self-confessed ‘liberal arts type of student’, O’Keefe, a former lawyer, says law was just ‘always there’ — unavoidably in his future.
“Nothing necessarily compelled me towards it other than family tradition — I was always much more performative than legal,” he said.
“But I would absolutely consider going back. If the steam ran out of the whole television business I would absolutely go back — I really enjoyed it.
“But that would require a massive retraining of my brain.”
We’re only here for a wee while, and I want to make a difference-O’Keefe
Married to Eleanor for 18 years, he said she is the introvert to his extrovert, and happy to stay out of her husband’s spotlight. These days, O’Keefe is in Melbourne most weekdays filming The Chase Australia for the Seven Network, a popular game show based on the smash UK hit. It’s a commute he’s done for 14 years so he’s used to it — and as he says, it’s ‘a hell of a lot better than being on the board of the CBA this week’.
“The Chase is tremendous,” he said. “It’s continuing to set the ratings on fire which pleases everyone.”
He often goes back to Riverview for fundraisers, and last year spoke to students about the importance of the White Ribbon domestic violence campaign, of which he is a founding member and former chairman.
IN OTHER NEWS
“The dear old Jesuits — there was something in their antiquity and their further learnedness, it was impossible not to respect them,” O’Keefe said.
“But I remember going into Fr Tony Walsh’s office and he would offer you a cigarette, which probably wasn’t in the rules, but that’s what happened.
His father was never called in about his ‘mischief’ at school, although a number of notes were sent home over the years, he admits.
“I remember the infamous school camp when four boys were asked to leave and 35 of us were suspended for smoking something that may not have been tobacco,” he laughed.
“And I may or may not have been done for forgery at some point, for a note signed by my mum, Jan.
“Translated from Latin, Riverview’s motto is ‘dare to do as much as you’re able’ and I feel like I have been living by that my whole life.
“It’s a lesson I practised from the day I was born, taught by my Dad and Uncle John.
“We’re only here for a wee while, and I want to make a difference.”
I love going back to the north because there is something special about the place-O’Keefe
Next month O’Keefe will launch a cabaret show about his Uncle John’s life at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival — a show he hopes to expand to the rest of the country next year.
His mum Jan still calls Mosman home.
“Mum is 75 — she is still in the area and she will never leave — she has too many local friends and when the hairdresser knows exactly how to do your do, you know you’re embedded.”
He says the north shore will always be close to his heart despite being a Bondi resident for 15 years now.
“I love going back to the north because there is something special about the place where the beach meets the harbour meets the bushland,” he said.
“My childhood was chasing blue tongues through the bush and going for a swim at the end of a bike ride, and seeing the flying moths out on the harbour. It was a busy but relaxed lifestyle. A blessed one.”
IN OTHER NEWS