I choose to start this story… now.
If you were a deep lover of rebellious comedy on the national Australian Broadcaster (also known as the ABC) in the late 1980s to mid 1990s, you would know who The Sandman and Flacco were… and you can skip to the end of this article.
Comedians Steve Abott (The Sandman) and Paul Livingston (Flacco) had their personas linger around The Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS) and friends on The Big Gig like a bad fart for years.
Not to mention The Sandman appearing as a regular on Triple J Breakfast radio with Paul McDermott, Mikey Robins, and Helen Razer, in the mid 1990s, giving life advice on share house living and road trips to catch a wave.
Eventually, Sandman and Flacco appeared as extra segments in McDermott hosted TV shows like Good News Week (1996 – 2000) and 2007’s The Sideshow, as well as their own spin-off specials.
In between GNW and Sideshow, in 2004 Abbott dropped his Sandman persona and hosted a variety show on SBS called In Siberia Tonight, and a documentary Sandman In Siberia the following year.
The vocal-broken Sandman retired not long after 2007’s The Sideshow – hosted by McDermott, while Flacco popped up alongside McDermott and Tim Ferguson, replacing Richard Fidler, in the Doug Anthony All Stars reboot if 2014 and onwards.
While the DAAS reboot shows have been highly successful, the question remains – Where’s Flacco and The Sandman?
Well, the two of them are going on tour to perform a tribute show to themselves.
So far there’s only a limited amount of shows – two in Newcastle in December 2019 and one in Perth in 2020. Check out their Facebook page for more updates.
That’s it.
It’s a cruel world.
