Media Dragon: The Bonkers Brilliance of John Clarke

Remembering John Clarke

The ABC pays tribute to celebrated satirist, John Clarke

AS I prodded him for memories of his New Zealand childhood, John Clarke once told me he remembered being an otter. He couldn’t recall how, or with whom, he had been swimming in a lake as a boy, but “that lovely feeling of the elements looking after you” came back to him often.

“I don’t talk in order to say what I think. I talk in order to find out what I think,” John once told me.

I picture him now gliding through water like an otter with God — and godwits — looking on.

Jana Wendt: The bonkers brilliance of John Clarke |

John Clarke, satirist and comedian