An Absinthe Toast!

Wherein the virtues of a dubiously engaging individual are discussed at length.

Greetings all connoisseurs of our richly decentralized new-millennium culture!

Those who may have viewed an earlier post of mine would have had the delight of experiencing 'The Gallery of Public Hooting', perhaps even for the first time. Congratulations to those of you! What a delight that must have been. I know that for me, viewing mass public displays of condemnation is an enjoyable, if not somewhat arousing experience, so I do hope that it inspired a similar sensation with you as well. But it led me to consider that perhaps one ought not introduce 'the stick' as it were, without a corresponding 'carrot.'

May I introduce to you all: THE CARROT!

And I call our friend, this carrot: 'The Gallery of Absinthe Toasts for the Dubiously Gifted Personages Who Inspire Awe for Whatever Reason.' Or in short: 'The Gallery of Absinthe Toasts.' ...Indeed, I think you will never hear the earlier moniker stated ever again.

And I even have a new personage who must be brought to everyone's attention and praised with a toast of Absinthe, for peculiarities in his personality. His name is John Safran.

John Safran would not be know to most of you, as he is a minor celebrity in the colonies, deep in Terra Australis. But I like to think of him as 'The Thinking Man's Jackass.' And by Jackass I refer to that American team of people who became famous by doing phenomenally stupid and painful things to themselves in the spirit of mindless good humour. And it worked. They are now internationally successful and rich. -Meanwhile, we good citizens who did not have the presence of mind to have frozen oranges lobbed into our orifices at 100km's per hour for the public's amusement are still slogging it out at the grindstone and aching out a pitiful existence. But I digress!

John Safran, who is a sometimes Television presenter for ABC and SBS and a sometimes radio personality for Triple J in Terra Australis also does ridiculously painful and horrific things to himself. But they are hardly mindless or stupid. Indeed, he is motivated by one of the most profound aspects of humanity in general, that being Religion. John Safran is obsessed with religion. All religion. In fact, his radio partner, Father Bob Maguire claims that "For him [John Safran], religion is the heart of the cosmos..."But his curiosity regarding religion is very much coloured by his Australian sense of irreverent humour. With some truly stunning results.

In 1997 John Safran first came to the Australian public's attention by appearing as a contestant in a documentary making world travelling game show thing called Race Around the World. And in it, he came last due to a disqualification from filming a movie which road-tested confession booths in Rio De Janeiro. -Which unfortunately is actually illegal to put to air on Australian TV. From that point on John Safran later filmed a fabulous series called John Safran vs God, which explores religions from all around the world, with both an irreverent but intently curious manner.

And he is awe-inspiring in his audacity.

In it he explores Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Freemasonry, Asatru, Judaism, and Catholicism. But it is his stunts that match Jackass for their 'oh my god' factor, but with a whole new element of social satire and commentary that Jackass is gloriously and gratuitously devoid of.

For example:

He attends a voodoo ritual where a goat is sacrificed in Haiti.
He gets a fatwa put on fellow TV presenter Rove McManus by extremist Muslim Clerics in London.
He lifts a curse on the Australian Socceroos with the help of a Malawian Witch-doctor.
He is beaten by a Zen Buddhist monk.
He goes Atheist door-knocking in Salt-Lake City Utah.

But the two stunts that are truly frightening are:

He is interviewed by the Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan and asks if he can join even though he's Jewish because, in his words, 'he's whiter than Hitler'.
He is exorcised by fundamentalist Christian and Evangelist Bob Larson.

It is fair to say that he is the world's expert in world religious experiences.

And on Good Friday this year, he indeed went to a new extreme in order to film a story and/or make a gag. He got himself crucified in the Philippines. Two nails were driven into his pale Melbournite Jewish palms in order to 'aid his mother who is dying of cancer.' (she actually died from a heart attack six years ago.)

So to John Safran, extremist religious dabbler, crucifixion survivor, Jewish aspirant of the Ku Klux Klan and all round shit-stirrer, we raise a flaming glass of Absinthe to your good-health and your dubious claim of infamy!

John Safran, Race Around the World, Road Testing Confessionals, Voodoo, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, Asatru, Buddhism, Christianity, Fundamentalists, Fundamental Christianity, Crucifixion, Hindu, Triple J, ABC, SBS, John Safran vs God, Race Relations, Absinthe, Absinthe toasts, provocateurs, Mormons, exorcism, Bob Larson, Fatwa, Islam, Extremists, Muslims, Witch-doctors, occultism, The Philipines, Good Friday, Easter, deception