John Safran

File:Johnsafran.jpg

John Safran (born 1972) is an Australian documentarian and media personality, well known for pranks and indelicate handling of controversial issues. He was born December, 1972, in Melbourne, Victoria, to a Jewish family. He is known for his outlandish stunts such as rummaging through Australian television personality Ray Martin's rubbish in John Safran: Media Mogul (an early and unsuccessful pilot for a TV series), putting a fatwa on Rove McManus, and sneaking nine young men into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by disguising them as members of American metal-like band, Slipknot.

Early life + Raspberry Cordial

After attending a secular state primary school, John was sent to a high school run by Chassidic missionaries from Brooklyn. Yeshivah College was very traditionalist, enforcing the donning of skullcaps, and barring the trimming of sideburns and dancing.

In Year 12, he formed the hip-hop group Raspberry Cordial with his friend Chris Lumsden. They played to some success, receiving high rotation airplay on the city's community radio, playing many gigs in Melbourne, and coming second in the RMIT Battle of the Bands competition. Their debut album was Melbourne Tram, a release which John apparently has hundreds of unsold cassettes of in his bedroom to this day.

After winning a government youth music initiative, they followed up with Taste Test, of which 500 copies were pressed. Of those, only 93 sold, so the remaining 407 had to be crushed. A song from "Taste Test", University Elevator Music, is legally downloadable from the Triple J website [1]. Interviewed on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope show in 2002, he said that Raspberry Cordial had "broke down the wall that Eminem's been able to walk through".

Safran attended La Trobe University to study journalism, a career he tried for a while but eventually dropped, without completing his degree. He then began work in advertising for Clemenger Harvic. During this time he wrote jingles for Mazda, Village Roadshow and Sea World.

Launch to fame with "Race Around The World"

Safran's first taste of national fame came via Race Around the World, a television competition for young documentarians run by the ABC. John's segments, while failing to please the judges, scored him well with the public audience. Despite being disqualified for a segment taped in a confession booth (the program forbade hidden camera footage), Safran topped the viewer poll. Regular judge Tony Squires labelled him as mischievous, and Idiot Box director David Caesor called Safran a "smart-arse westerner taking the piss out of a soft subject" and his work "Shithouse".

Safran started the race off timid and tame, being locked inside a Tokyo subway station in his first entry. He soon however broke what he called the "fear barrier" to film his now infamous segments. These include streaking through the streets of Jerusalem on behalf of St Kilda, his favorite Australian Rules Football team, placing a Voodoo curse on his ex-girlfriend, breaking into Disneyland and getting a Catholic church priest to review death metal music.

After "The Race" was over

After this brush with fame, John tried to pitch several television pilots to the ABC and commercial channels. These were not taken up to due to the legal action of Ray Martin. Though all unsuccessful, they became a hit via the internet [2] amongst media university students. John also recorded a parody of Baz Luhrmann's motivational Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) entitled Not the Sunscreen Song which includes lines such as "Never live in Adelaide, it's a hole" and "Remember, you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex". It peaked at #39 and was nominated for an Aria. Recently, in Triple M's 2005 Greatest Songs Ever Written And Performed Since The Beginning of Time poll, Not The Sunscreen Song came in at #706 - one spot above Superstition by Stevie Wonder.

Safran also presented segments for Seven's now defunct Late Report, some were also screened in the United Kingdom with Channel 4's Disinformation program. Never escaping his wild side, John attained infamy and police attention for a stunt to try and coerce cricketer Shane Warne into breaking a "no smoking" clause in an advertising contract with a nicotine gum manufacturer. Safran drove a remote controlled seagull with a cigarette onto the pitch during a match. He was arrested for "pitch invasion", but the charges were dropped.

As of 2002 John has been a regular host of Melbourne community radio station 3RRR (Triple R) on its morning show "Breakfasters". Additionally he has recently been hosting Sunday Night Safran on national youth radio station Triple J.

The era of SBS documentaries

In 2002 John launched his documentary series John Safran's Music Jamboree. The show was a novel approach to documentary genre, combining John Safran's comedic talent, personal passions, and typical outlandish stunts with solid information and interesting trivia. Screened in SBS' "poor taste" comedy Monday evening timeslot (well known for shows like South Park, Crank Yankers and Pizza), it opened Safran's work to whole new generation who had not seen the original Race Around the World material. The show impressed the Australian Film Industry so much that it won two AFI awards in 2002; "Best Comedy Series" and "Most Innovative Program Concept".

In August 2004, he debuted his new show John Safran vs God, also on the SBS television network. The first seven episodes were typical Safran informative satire, but the series' finale was something else. It featured John being exorcised of demons which had allegedly possessed him during his dabblings with world religions. The exorcism was performed by well known Christian fundamentalist Bob Larson. It has been claimed that it was all faked for cameras, but John has neither confirmed or denied these rumours. However, in an interview with an Australian radio personality, John did say that he "felt something was going on", and that "there was something about the expression on my face".

It has been confirmed by many authorities, including an SBS advertisment, that John Safran is currently working on a new project in the form of a talk-show with his collaborator Father Bob, a catholic priest with whom Safran performs a weekly radio show on Triple J. The show will be broadcast some time in November on Australia's SBS television. Most details of the show are currently unclear.

External links

• The Official John Safran web site (written by his ex-girlfriend)
• John Safran at IMDb
• Lyrics and mp3 of Not the Sunscreen Song
• Cult of Safran - Yahoo! Groups
• John's Safran's Music Jamboree homepage
• John Safran vs. God homepage
• John Safran is the Sixth Fifth Spice Girl — the first website about John Safran