Wayne Anthoney: From Adelaide scientist to Humbolt the Clown on TV to film appearances, writing/acting in plays
Wayne Anthoney as Humbolt the Clown in Amsterdam. Top right: In his $15 suit from Trims, Adelaide, performing in Costa Rica in 1985. Bottom right: With Adam Barnes and Brian Godfrey in Don Parties On at Adelaide's Holden Street Theatres in 2016.
Wayne Anthoney switched in 1974 from working as a rocket scientist in Adelaide to what became a career clown, working on Australian national television and overseas. Another twist in Anthoney’s life was many years living in Central Australia, supporting Indigenous communities.
Born in Adelaide in 1940, Anthoney graduated from Adelaide University in 1962 to work in science for 12 years before jumping, firstly, into acting. His stage experience with limited to Adelaide University Footlights Club revues but he also landed small roles in South Australia Film Corporation 1970s films such Sunday Too Far Away when he played the undertaker.
He gained more work by creating his own clown persona: a tramp with a green face and top hat called Humbolt (names after the German naturalist – without the d). Humbolt the Clown moved from entertaining at parties and schools and festivals to becoming a national children’s television star for more than a decade on the Adelaide-made Fat Cat and Friends, starring Patsy Biscoe and produced by Murray George. Anthoney also appeared as the gawky clown Arthur on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) children’s science show The Investigators. He also invented the Professor Orlando character and became a roving street performer.
Anthony’s dancer wife Meredith supported the evolution of Humbolt, even donning hefty Fat Cat costume to dance on his touring shows. (Their daughter Christie’s formative life with clown father and dancer mother led her to an arts career as chief executive of Festivals Adelaide.)
Anthoney continued to equip himself with the skills of Commedia dell’arte and circus, adding music and magic tricks including his rubber Roger the Rooster. Roger would be the big hit when Anthony’s Magick Circus took him on the international clown and Fools festivals circuit including, in 1986, the first World’s Clown Festival for Peace in Costa Rica.
Back in Australia, Anthony also toured remote Aboriginal communities, leading to increasing interest in and concern with their plight. In 1996, he accepted an offer to become Nyangatjatjara Aboriginal Corporation project manager (through to 2004) to develop an independent secondary school. Anthony later wrote a book Travels In A Foreign Land about his 30-plus years’ experience with Aboriginal people in Central Australia.
Returning to Adelaide, Anthoney added to his performance tapestry. He was in many plays as well as film appearances in the 1985 remake of Robbery Under Arms, Rolf de Heer’s Dr Plonk (2007) and Oranges and Sunshine (2010). In addition to his memoir, One Rubber Rooster is Never Enough, Anthoney wrote plays, starting in 1964. His clown versions of Shakespearean plays –The Clowns' Macbeth (1985) and Juliet and Romeo (1986) – were performed widely, including by Beaivvas Sami Theatre (in the Arctic Circle region of Norway) in 1977 and 1999.
Anthoney's play Never a drop to drink, written with Jenn Havelberg, a bleak black comedy about life in Adelaide when all the water runs out, was performed at the top of a deserted city building. Anthony also taught part-time at Adelaide College of the Arts since its first year. He was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to entertainment and the Aboriginal community.
