Paul Hogan
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Paul Hogan

A simple smile can work wonders. It can make someone’s day, soften the heart of the cruellest dictator and set your brain abuzz with endorphins. Paul Hogan is just one of the people making all these things possible in his stand-up show touring regional Australia. Put simply, Paul knows his work is done once every face in the crowd has a smile from cheek to cheek.
“We had standing ovations, but more importantly no one goes home at interval. So everyone stays for the second half, so that’s all you want. That and laughter,” he says. “That’s what it’s really all about. It’s nice to surprise people a lot, too.”
Gaining a smile isn’t always the easiest thing to achieve, and while it may be tempting to exaggerate stories to garner a reaction, Paul has stuck to the truth in his show Hoges: One Night Only and has opted to select the weird and funny tales from his life to naturally provoke a smile.
“I’m not a joke teller. I don’t make anything up. Everything I say is just about true, because truth is funnier than fiction,” he says.
With such a successful career, you’d think it was something Paul had his heart set on from an early age, but he slipped into the career by chance after he was discovered working on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He has since stumbled into each opportunity, and it’s his appreciation for each one that sets him apart from others in the spotlight.
“I had no interest in going into show business at all. I just stumbled into it at like age 30. And that’s given me a big advantage, not stressing about it or trying to be something growing up. To stumble into something and to find that you’re good at it is a nice surprise,” he says.
It’s easy to feel a tinge of envy looking at the long list of things he’s been involved in, and all without chasing it. But there’s a lesson to be learnt in his career, and that is that it’s important to find what you’re meant to do and embrace it.
“If you see a door with an opportunity, kick the door down, put your head in and see if that’s worth exploring,” he says.
One such opportunity for Paul was in fact the very tour that he is currently just over a month into.
“I sort of never planned this at all. Liam Murphy, the guy that wrote and produced Charlie & Boots, talked me into this; and I was doing nothing else so it didn’t take much talking into. It sounded like fun so I did it. And that’s my rule; if it’s fun, I’ll do it,” Paul says.
The show will land in Ballarat on August 31, where a large part of Charlie & Boots was filmed, and then goes up to the tip, much like in the movie.
“Making that movie we travelled from South Australia to the northern tip and we’re sort of almost completing that journey. I enjoyed it then and I’m loving it now,” Paul says.
For a man who began his career from a chance sighting and almost instantly became an icon for the quintessential Aussie man he’s still maintained a level head, and seems almost the same as when we first saw him hit our TV screens in the early ’70s.
When&Where: Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – August 30 & Wendouree Performing Arts, Ballarat – August 31
By Amanda Sherring