John Pinder

John Pinder (January 1945 26 May 2015) was a New Zealand-born Australian comedy producer, promoter, and festival director based in Melbourne for most of his career. He produced band performances and ran live venues, being especially known for the comedy theatre cafes Flying Trapeze and The Last Laugh. He also co-founded the contemporary circus company Circus Oz in 1977, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 1987.

Early life and education John Pinder was born in January 1945 in New Zealand, and spent his formative years in Dunedin, where there was much theatre and other live shows. His parents would take him to the theatre and musicals, and the whole family tuned in to The Goon Show on radio on Sunday nights. In addition, the family lived next door to a plot where Bullens Circus and Ashtons Circus regularly performed – so all of these factors were early influences.

He trained as a teacher of fine arts in Dunedin, and during his late teens, saw many productions by the Dunedin Repertory Society. They had a workshop and free access to much of J. C. Williamson's work. At university, Pinder got "roped in" to designing sets, and did some work on a production for the teachers college. After doing some set design and backstage work with various productions in several towns in New Zealand, Pinder "drifted into" journalism and theatre reviewing.

By the late 1960s Pinder got into promoting rock concerts. promoted T. F. Much Ballroom (and its successors the Much More Ballroom and Stoned Again) as a live venue. The venue was actually the Cathedral Hall or Central Hall in Fitzroy, allocated the Ballroom names when hired out as a music venue. It became was Melbourne's leading event arts and music venues of the early 1970s, with events usually held monthly. The events included multiple musical acts, with stand-up comedy, poetry readings, theatrical, dance, and novelty performances in between. Circus Oz was co-founded by Pinder, the result of a collaboration between Adelaide group New Circus and Melbourne's Soapbox Circus.

At this time, Pinder was putting a lot of effort into the production of the shows (around 12–15 a year), which had increasing amounts of comedy in them, as well as working for radio stations. He also put on large-scale shows at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, including Billy Thorpe, who attracted an audience of around 200,000. He sold The Flying Trapeze after around two and a half years. They formed a company called John Pinder and Roger Evans Ltd, and Evans ran his own restaurant in Sydney. Pinder said that Evans was much better at looking after the money side of things, but they were both involved in choosing acts to produce. Pinder had seen the original show as a one-hour performance with a tiny cast showing at The Pram Factory, and invited them to The Last Laugh, where they expanded and reworked the production. where he developed a series of festival venues, including The Starfish Club for the Adelaide Fringe Festival, where Stomp and the Tokyo Shock Boys had their Australian debut. The 1990s also saw Pinder move into television, initially as a consultant on Steve Vizard's Tonight Live,

In 2001, Robert Love, director of the Riverside Theatres Parramatta, asked Pinder to create a comedy festival around the Riverside Theatres hub. It became the Big Laugh Comedy Festival, and it ran until 2007. As festival director, Pinder was responsible for bringing The Goodies to Australia for a sell-out tour as part of the 2005 festival. He also co-produced the first live shows of The 3rd Degree, the comedy troupe which went on to become television sketch show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour.

In 2003, he was running the Big Laugh in Parramatta, in outer Sydney.

Personal life Pinder married Dasha Ross around 1987. Ross worked as a documentary production executive for the ABC for many years. The couple spent some time living in the Harlem neighbourhood in New York City as well as in Barcelona, Spain.

Later life, death and legacy In 2014, he appeared on the ABC documentary series about Australian comedy, Stop Laughing...This Is Serious. He is survived by his partner Dasha and two daughters.

Comedians' careers During the late 1980s, Pinder was described as "the Sydney Greenstreet of Melbourne comedy". 2016: Tom Ballard, for The World Keeps Happening 2017: Damien Power, for Utopia: Now in 3D! 2018: Demi Lardner, for I Love Skeleton 2019: Joint winners: -- Steph Tisdell, for The Pyramid -- Sam Taunton, for Straight From The Shoulder 2022: Danielle Walker, for Nostalgia 2023: Hannah Camilleri, for Lollybag 2024: Bronwyn Kuss, for Pillows XXX

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