WHAT HAPPENED TO SANDMAN (OR HOW I BECAME A BIRDWATCHER)

The lights are already up and the show seems underway before you arrive. Quick check of the watch. Yep. You’re on time all right - but somehow you’ve missed the start. And as you’ll discover, I missed the end. For the record I, Steve, aka The Sandman last appeared on Australian television as Sandman, my phlegmatic Anthony- Robbins-in-reverse character in 2009 on the show Sunrise. I was meant to do twelve episodes, but did only the one. It might’ve had something to do with the piece I presented - ‘How to touch people without attracting legal trouble.’ This was also the exact moment I knew I needed to Exit Sandman.

And that was before Sunrise called me to say there were four hundred complaints and I needn’t worry about the other eleven shows.

Based on my 36 years experience performing in Australia the average minor celebrity lasts about eight years. Australia is a small market and ‘minors’ rarely sustain longer. If that’s true I was four years past my use-by when Sandman was on Sunrise. I should’ve quit, but didn’t.

Yep, this is a navel-gazing look at the life and times of me, Steve, the artist formerly known as Sandman, with an emphasis on the time after my brush with fame... and how bird-watching helped me overcome the malaise that almost swallowed me.

“bird noises... a bikie gang... Abbott appearing naked... a fun piece, with a serious underlying message.” - Newcastle Herald

Street 2 - unreserved | Duration - 75 minutes, no interval