Yahoo Serious

actor, director, writer, producer, visual artist.

Yahoo Serious is one of Australia's most original and successful independent filmmakers. He became the first Australian to write, produce, direct and star in a major motion picture. The cinematic style of Yahoo's first three feature films have collided social satire and physical comedy. The films combine unorthodox themes with epic visuals and slapstick performances. Serious immerses himself in every detail of movie making, from the original concept and script through visual and music design to the madness of performing all his own stunts.

Yahoo Serious grew up where the Hunter Valley meets Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, Australia. He worked as a tyre fitter to pay his way through the National Art School. Hanging up his paint brush, he began mixing absurd comedy with conceptual ideas in works like "Three people talking about Art until one falls asleep". Eventually expelled for satirical artworks, he figured movies, "a combination of all artforms colliding at once", was where contemporary art was alive. At 21 Yahoo wrote, produced, directed and filmed Coaltown, a documentary tracing the turbulent, socio-political history of coalmining. The following year he won the National Award for Best Australian Educational Documentary for his TV series Lifestyle. After traveling extensively in Asia, Europe and America he began writing, directing and performing in experimental comedy films.

A strange encounter on a trip down the Amazon river inspired Yahoo to create Young Einstein - the incredible untold story of Albert Einstein, the genius Tasmanian apple farmer. "In 1905 Albert discovered Relativity, in 1906 he invented Rock and Roll". In 1988 Yahoo Serious became the first Australian to write, direct, produce and star in a feature film. Young Einstein was a national and international hit both critically and at the box office. Made on a shoestring budget which Yahoo pulled together by borrowing cameras and selling his old car, Young Einstein went on to gross over $100 million and reach number one in many countries including Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Canada during 1989-90. In America Young Einstein was one of the most sucessful Australian movies ever released and became a cult classic. The movie's soundtrack, produced by Yahoo, went double platinum.

In February 1989 Yahoo was featured on the cover of TIME magazine. In the same year he was the cover of MAD magazine, wrote and starred in his own series of MTV shows in New York and, as a satire on TV reporting, he interviewed himself on 60 Minutes. Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club awarded him the Celebrated Filmmaker Award for Young Einstein.

Yahoo wrote, directed, produced and starred in Reckless Kelly the comedically twisted adventures of Ned Kelly, the legendary Australian outlaw who accidentally becomes a Hollywood movie star. It was the most popular film at the Australian box office on its release at Easter 1993 and (like Young Einstein) was distributed internationally by Warner Bros in 1994-95. Reckless Kelly champions environmental issues, a new Australian flag, Aboriginal heritage and land rights. It celebrates multiculturalism, while satirising gun-obsessed Hollywood movies and fame. It chronicled Australian cultural aspirations and fears while throwing a satirical eye on where America was heading as Ned Kelly took a mad motorcycle romp through Las Vegas and Hollywood.

Yahoo's latest movie Mr Accident is a dangerous romantic comedy about free range eggs, nicotine addiction and whether Mankind is alone in the Universe. Once again Yahoo wrote, directed, produced and foolishly did all his own stunts. Through comedy, Mr Accident takes a light-hearted look at how comercial rationalism and corporate executive greed can crush the rights and freedoms of the individual. Amid a non-stop deluge of accidents, the movie takes a swipe at the gutter morality of the tobacco industry.

Mr Accident has been distributed worldwide by MGM/United Artists. Mr Accident stars Yahoo Serious as Roger Crumpkin, the world's most accident-prone human being, Helen Dallimore as the dipsy chicken-sexer Sunday Valentine and David Field as eccentric tobacco company executive Duxton Chevalier. It also features Grant Piro as Lyndon, Garry McDonald as egg genius Kelvin, Jeanette Cronin as big-bottomed cop Rikki and Peanut the dog as Audrey. Writer/director Serious filmed Mr Accident with Sydney's spectacular harbour and city as the backdrop to a cinematic extravaganza of accidents. Yahoo produced with Warwick Ross. Co-producers are Lulu Serious and David Roach.

Yahoo Serious is a long-time advocate for an Australian Republic, a keen traveller and a dedicated surfer. Made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Newcastle in 1996 for his contribution to cinema arts, Dr Serious is currently writing his new movie and surfing on Sydney's northern beaches.

 

 

 


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