The Characters of NOT YET Part 2

     NOT YET

     Cast        

                Max Harper          Andrew Brown
Dr Jake “JJ” Jaxon           Peter Flaherty
                Tina Harper          Cate Commisso
                      Elle Jaxon          Mayumi Nobetsu
             Lucy Harper          Natalie Brown
“Cupcake” Harper          Hayley Brown
   “Beastie” Harper          Chloe Flaherty
                    Fi Malone          Wendy Warsow
                     Les Malone          Brendon Warsow
                    Pete Jaxon          Mayson Nobetsu
                            Connie          Courtni Cincotta
                                  Sam          Mitchell Gilmour
             Water Malone          Harper Warsow
             Honey Malone          Georgia Warsow
             Rock Malone          Mason Warsow
Phil the Barman          Nathan Itter

Okay, last time in The Characters of NOT YET, I got as far as introducing Max Harper, played by myself and Dr Jake “JJ” Jaxon played by Peter Flaherty. Now to continue….

Tina Harper played by the amazing, beautiful and talented (no particular order) Cate Commisso is again two people. Although I hope you realise that the Harper part is the same as every other Harper surname in the film and was mentioned in The Characters of NOT YET. Tina is a single mum who’s ex husband Joel teamed up with The Comedy Gallery to help raise some dollars for this lady as she was battling breast cancer. Last I heard she was given the all clear and is going well. Unfortunately she was unwell on the actual comedy night and I have never met her.

Next is Elle Jaxon, being played by one of the funniest and easily my favourite comedian in Melbourne, Mayumi Nobetsu. The Jaxon part of the name again is the same as in part one of this story in The Characters of NOT YET. The Elle part is for another single mum who was battling brain cancer. The money being raised was to help her two children who were 9 and 11 at the time I believe. Happy to be corrected on that. Eleanor’s sister in law, Danielle, who already had 3 children of her own was going to look after Eleanor’s two, they needed a bigger car for one thing. Sadly Eleanor’s battle finished just before Christmas that year.

Now please forgive me if this next bit sounds a bit selfish and I don’t pretend to know, understand or even compare my feelings to what those families went through at that time. My heart still goes out to all of them. Elle, Jaxon and Jakey Boy all passed away within 4 weeks of each other. The timing hit me and other comedians hard. I decided that I didn’t want to do any fundraising for a while. It hurt too much. If not for The Comedy Gallery and the fundraisers, I never would have known these people, known their families, got a glimpse and small share of their pain. Ironically, when I shared the news of my daughter Hayley’s cancer I received some of the most love and support from Jakey Boy’s mum Samantha, Jaxon’s mum and dad, Jodie and Rob as well as Danielle’s sister Jacqui and mum Anne. More than from certain members of my own family but that’s a different whinge. I will hold all this people close to my heart forever.

Anyway, even though I had (temporarily) sworn off fundraisers, top bloke and great mate Nathan Itter announces he has bowel cancer. Just after I said No More Fundraisers! Of all the inconsiderate…. just kidding. So another fundraiser was organised but instead of naming a character after this guy, I gave him a part in the film. Check the list, Nathan Itter who is a brilliant actor, director, filmmaker himself is playing the part of Phil the Barman. Phil is someone that, happily, has not needed a fundraiser but he has been very supportive on nearly all the above. We even used his venue that he had at the time for one of the fundraising ideas. So in thanks to Phil, here’s Phil the Bartender.

Back to moving down the line. Lucy Harper being played by my incredible and multi talented daughter Natalie Brown. Lucy is a lady who was putting on a fundraiser to help her autistic son Jack to have his own, proper accomodation. Naturally she approached The Comedy Gallery to supply some entertainment.

   

Now for some fun and sad and silly, funny ones that had nothing to do with fundraisers. I asked the little kids in film to come up with their own characters names. My daughter Hayley Brown in her first ever film was wearing pyjamas with cupcake pictures on them when I asked her what her name could be. “Cupcake” Harper was created.

Playing Lucy and Cupcake’s sister is Peter Flaherty’s daughter, Chloe Flaherty. She wanted to be named after the family dog which had sadly died the year before. “Beastie” Harper.

When I asked 7yo Harper Warsow for a name she was in a cheeky, giggly mood and she said Watermelon but she said it in a funny way so it sounded more like Water Malone. So I thought cool, they can be the Malone family. So Georgia Warsow is Honey Malone and Mason Warsow is Rock Malone.

So the Warsow family became the Malone family. The kids just had silly made up names but the mum and dad take us back to the fundraisers. Fi Malone played by the beautiful, generous and talented Wendy Warsow is a fundraiser done for someone anonymous so please forget I mentioned it. Les Malone, played by equally generous and talented and almost as beautiful, Brendon Warsow, is in honour to the amazing work done and still going by Les Twentyman and the Les Twentyman Foundation (or 20th Man Fund as it was known at the time). We did a few shows over the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and forwarded all profits to Les’s charity.

The next one I will mention briefly as I feel I owe this incredible gentleman more than a paragraph. Pete Jaxon, being played super super fit, super nice guy and Mayumi’s son, Mayson Nobetsu. Pete Crofts is the man who started the world’s first Humourversity. Pete has been collecting comedy memorabilia and paraphernalia for the best part of half a century. This stuff needed to go into storage until we could find a museum type set up to put it in, These things cost money. So The Comedy Gallery teamed up with the Comic’s Lounge to introduce the newly formed Australian Institute of Comedy to the world and raise the necessary dollars.

To end this blog we will mention two of the most amazing and inspirational people you could ever want to know. Now remember that these names were done more than a year ago. It really is coincidence that now, a year later they are big in the news for amazing things. I am referring to Connie, being played by Courtni Cincotta and Sam being played by Mitchell Gilmour. So for those overseas reading this or those here who have there heads stuck so far up themselves that they haven’t heard of Samuel Johnson and Connie Johnson please go to the LOVE YOUR SISTER page as there is too much amazing there for me to fit here (please buy and/or donate while you are there) but I will mention a couple of things. Samuel Johnson has just won the Gold Logie, one of the highest honours for someone on Australian television. He also broke a world record when he unicycled right around Australia, raising money for cancer research…. and Connie Johnson, just last week broke a world record with five cent pieces by collecting over $2.2million dollars worth of them and filling a heart.

Now there are a couple of characters still not cast, so there is still more to mention but really not much more. Until then….