‘I was completely and utterly overwhelmed’: Comedian Brian Nankervis on meeting with Bob Dylan

Writer, TV/radio host and comedian BRIAN NANKERVIS on fate, meeting Bob Dylan and what keeps him sane.

Writer, TV/radio host and comedian Brian Nankervis. Photo credit: Kathy Chambers.

My big break was … when I was asked to participate in a telethon where everyone had to do a little act. Everyone had something they could draw on, they were either stand-up comedians or had been in the theatre. I wasn’t sure what I could do. I’d always been interested in poetry and recited it for my students when I had been a teacher so I wrote a very exaggerated poem that I imagined was deep and meaningful and moving but in actual fact was sort of ridiculous. It went down extremely well. There was someone in the audience who was working at Channel 9 on Hey Hey It’s Saturday and she approached me about appearing in a new segment called Red Faces. I thought ‘sure’, thinking I’d eventually go back to teaching. (Nankervis appeared as fictional poet Raymond J. Bartholomeuz; his Days by the Ocean became a classic satire). But I guess one thing led to another and here I am.

What comedy and teaching have in common is … you get used to feeling comfortable in front of a crowd. You also get very good at engaging an audience who may not necessarily want to be there, like 25 kids in a classroom.

I met Bob Dylan … in 1986 when my old friend was working for a TV show that was interviewing him. She was a little concerned the reporter who was going to interview Dylan was underprepared. He has a reputation for not being very patient with people who aren’t prepared. So she asked me to have lunch with the reporter before the interview to give him some background and make sure the questions were okay. The lunch went great. And then at the end of the chat the reporter said, ‘All right well I better go’. And then he said ‘If you’re really a fan, I’m going to need someone to carry my bags’. So I was able to sit in on the interview. At the end we went to shake hands with . It was in that moment that I was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the fact this man is someone I’ve admired and is one of the greatest songwriters we have. So all I could think of to say was ‘Thanks’ to which he looked at me and said ‘Yeah’. It was pretty great.

The thing that keeps me sane is … my family, my beautiful wife and three fabulous children. I’m also involved in a loose collective of men who kick the football a couple of times a week. We don’t play matches, we don’t compete, just circle work. We started it 27 years ago and it’s still going. It’s a real outlet. It’s a real solid workout. But then you’ll sit and you’ll chat and someone might be acknowledging the passing of a parent and there might be a slab of beer. That’s really very important to me.

I discovered the Rolling Stones … when I was 10. My cousin introduced me to them. All of a sudden we stopped heading out to the backyard to kick the footy or play cricket and we started heading the other way down to their den, which was lined with pictures of the Rolling Stones, to listen to music. It was so exciting and there was a hint of danger, of anti-establishment.

Brian Nankervis will tour his show RocKwiz Live! In Australia from the October 8 to December 5, with performances across the country.