Fiona Byrne: How The Chase star Andrew O’Keefe survived an ‘annus horribilis’ year
The Chase star Andrew O’Keefe said he felt “betrayed” when pictures of him at a private party were splashed across a national magazine. He also saw his marriage to Eleanor end this year and admitted it has been an “annus horribilis.”
Fiona Byrne
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The Chase star Andrew O’Keefe has never been boring nor predictable.
Andrew, 47, started his professional life as lawyer before moving into TV, joining Channel 7 in 2003. Clever, quick-witted and confident, he has become one of Australia’s top game show hosts and was an instinctive and entertaining live TV anchor at the helm of Weekend Sunrise for 12 years. But with his marriage ending late last year, 2018 was a year of change for the small screen showman.
A series of pictures showing him in an unedifying state at a private party were splashed across a national magazine in September, prompting suggestion that it was time for the brakes to be applied to his love of a good time. A generous, fascinating and fun interviewee, Andrew reflected on a rollercoaster year.
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FB: It’s been an interesting year for you, one of headlines, challenges and change. How would you describe it?
AOK: Well, I think as the Queen once described a particular year it has been an annus horribilis in many ways. It has been a bit of a rough and bumpy year, on a personal front, having separated from Eleanor a year ago and trying to navigate what it means to be a co-parent, a single person, a single father and feeling slightly, I guess, adrift in the world.
I spent 25 years building a certain emotional castle, and creating all of the things that we like to think we are going to achieve in life, and at the age of 47 I feel like I am starting all over again.
That took a bit of getting use to, adjusting, and I can’t say I didn’t have some really morbid and grim times. But as I have discovered as the year has gone along it also presents a lot of opportunities to become something else, something that you want to be. I don’t know what that means, I don’t know yet what that looks like, but the last year has been a process of trying to work that out.
FB: When you and Eleanor split after 18 years of marriage it was described as a “sophisticated separation,” with your children (Barney, Rory and Olive) the priority for both of you. Can you explain that term?
AOK: That (the children) was the number one priority of course and along with that goes the avoidance of any acrimony. Obviously it can be difficult in any break up, you break up for certain reasons.
Eleanor is the most wonderful person and the most wonderful mother. She is highly intelligent, she is very imaginative, compassionate. She is also a fantastic wife, but showbiz can be very hard on relationships especially as, when I do, you spend half your year out of town. We still love each other very much and we always will, but we have become different people to the people we married.
We just sort of grew in different directions and that became a very sad realisation for both of us. But the number one thing is to demonstrate to your kids that despite the fact you are no longer married there can still be love and you can still be, in a sense, a family.
We have barely consulted lawyers, we have done everything through our mutually loved and trusted accountant, and reached a decision with which I think we are all kind of happy.
FB: I believe you moved just a few doors down the road from the family home?
AOK: The kids have been tremendous, we have always been very open with the kids about everything. Our general policy is if they ask a question you answer the question.
Amid all the sadness and grief there are surprises along the way and there are moments of humour.
I remember when we sat down and told the kids that I was going to move down the road, I said if there is anything that you would like to get for my new place that is going to make you feel more comfortable just let me know. And there was a silence for about ten seconds and one of my sons said ‘you know what would make us feel very comfortable?’
I said ‘no.’ And he answered: ‘PlayStation 1.’
FB: This year saw you in the headlines when pictures from a private party in Cairns appeared in a magazine along with stories of you partying up a storm. Disappointed is one word, I am guessing, that came to mind when you saw the story?
AOK: I think disappointed is the correct word. I am not the only person in the world who has gone out and had a big night and done things that in the light of day look a little silly, so I don’t carry any shame around that at all.
But it is embarrassing when your kids have to see that kind of thing, of course it is.
I felt disappointed that a couple of the people involved had done that. When I was in Cairns I had hosted a private party for a bunch of people in my room. I ordered up food and champagne and entertained everyone, and everyone had a great time and everyone went home and then pictures turned up.
I wrote to the person who I know took the pictures and said: ‘Look I am really disappointed about that. I would have thought the appropriate response to that night would have been ‘thanks very much for a good time, hope to catch you next time you are in Cairns.’’
I feel very betrayed and it is bad karma.
FB: Does this experience, coupled with your experience of 10 years ago where you were videoed leaving a nightclub after a big night, heighten your awareness that there is always a camera somewhere and that privacy is almost a thing of the past?
AOK: I certainly think that particular article really shook me into recognising that is the case, that whatever you do in public is likely, or at least possibly, going to end up somewhere and therefore it makes you think about the effect it is going to have on other people; ie your kids, Eleanor or anyone else in my circle of friendship.
On the general issue of privacy, I think the modern world has jettisoned privacy without even considering for a moment the value of it.
When I look at people on Instagram who are filming their engagement proposal to a soundtrack and it is edited, I think this is the most intimate moment of your life and you have turned that intimacy into a commodity.
Since the industrial revolution the great thinkers of the world have been trying to separate the human soul from the human body. Yeah, you can have our body, you can have our talent as your commodity but our hearts and our souls are our own.
These days that rule does not apply. I think the assumption is on behalf of those people, that because they are willing to give it away everyone has given up on privacy. But privacy is a sacred thing because it is in our privacy that we create ourselves.
FB: Moving on to TV, you are three years and more than 400 episodes into The Chase. Did the success of the show surprise you?
AOK: Yes, it did. I had not really even seen the English version before we started. It took me a while to realise, until we started playing it, how great the format was. It has a number of ebbs and flows of pace so you mix up the high pressure, fast money rounds, with the conversationality of the multiple choice rounds, and you never know until the last 10 seconds of the show who is going to win.
The other thing is the characters of The Chasers are so fascinating in themselves that for an audience it doesn’t matter who wins. To watch the Chaser hunt down a big score is equally as satisfying as watching the contestants get away with the money. I think the value of creating characters around the brainiacs is unestimatible. It is theatre, it is fantastic.
FB: The show introduces a new Chaser in 2019, Cheryl Toh, who is going by the name of Tiger Mum.
AOK: I am very excited. I have really been on Channel 7’s back about getting more gender equity into the show. We have up until now only had one female Chaser. It takes a while to work someone up and I am absolutely thrilled Cheryl is now on the show. She is an interesting character, she is whip smart, she chose the name. I think the fact she is not an Anglo Saxon Australian is another fantastic thing.
FB: You embraced singing and acting this year after quite a sizeable break by bringing two shows to the stage. What motivated that?
AOK: The reason I got out of law and into television was that I wanted to pursue a creative career and my first job in television (Big Bite) was very creative. We made sketch comedy, we were creating sketches, we were playing roles, we were acting and directing. With Deal Or No Deal, The Chase and most of the other shows I have done the opportunities for true creativity are a bit limited.
I did get to a point where I was wondering where was my creative outlet. Music has always been my greatest passion. I studied singing for six years, always loved it, did a couple of musicals along the way and eventually thought, ‘Well, I want to do something that is mine now.’
FB: One of the shows was your tribute to your uncle Johnny O’Keefe — Australia’s original “wild one”. Why did it take so long for you to do that show?
AOK: The JOK show was a real labour of love. People have been asking me to do a show (about him) for many years but I did not want to trade off the name. It was 40 years this year since he died and 60 years since his first hit and I thought if there was ever an appropriate time, then this was it. I read a few of the biographies and listened to all of the music and chatted to my aunt about it, and thought this man deserves a proper memorial on stage before his fans go the way he has gone.
FB: What did you learn about JOK?
AOK: He was even more amazing than I ever imagined. He created rock and roll in Australia.
He would drive around the whole country in his car convincing or bribing DJs to play his records. He would put his own posters up everywhere he went. He spent all of his money on records his mate, who worked for Qantas, would bring back from overseas like Bo Didley, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard.
He was steeped in (rock and roll) before he got his break and his break came when one of the acts pulled out and Lee Gordon rang him and said ‘all right kid, you reckon you can sing. Tomorrow night in Wollongong you are going to open for Little Richard,’ and that was his first gig.
In the next six years he had 24 top 20 hits, 14 top 10s and six number ones.
He was a beautiful man with a huge heart, but also very flawed. He burnt very brightly and he did not know how to stop burning until he burnt out.
FB: The show was very well received by audiences and reviewers. Have you got more shows planned?
AOK: Yes, we have booked a tour. We are doing all the capital cities starting in September (2019) and a couple of the regionals as well.
FB: Have you convinced Channel 7 to roll the dice on a late night variety show yet?
AOK: No. Nor do I naturally think it will ever get across the line. There is a belief the money that it takes to make a late night show can’t be recouped in that slot. Fair enough. There are executives that know more about that than I do.
Interestingly, I pitched a number of shows recently in which there has been considerable interest and I sense there has been a change in the way television executives are looking at things.
FB: How long are you committed to Seven?
AOK: It is the only television station for which I have ever worked. It is a two-year contract. Frankly, once I am useless as an on screen personality I would be more than happy to take on janitorial duties! I do really feel like Channel 7 is in some ways a family for me.
FB: What do you hope 2019 brings?
AOK: Professionally, I hope for the continued success of The Chase and I am looking forward to rolling out more of the JOK show because I love live performance and I would like at least one more project to get up that is firmly in a creative realm … and I feel pretty confident that is going to happen.
Personally I just want to find a kind of stillness that I have not had for a very long time. I realised what I needed to do this Christmas was sit still and stop moving, stop talking, go through all the boxes in the garage, go through all the photos, remember what I have done with myself for the last 25 years, because I have literally not stopped moving. I hope that will give me a stillness, a peace that will allow me to move into the next half of my life feeling grounded and able.
FB: And after a year where some were wondering if you were becoming the “wild one” like JOK, are you going to be quieter in 2019?
AOK: I don’t know if I will be quieter in terms of audibility but hopefully I am going to be more thoughtful. I have made a commitment to myself that nothing passes my lips that is not true or does not mean something to me, or to someone else.
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