Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die

CELEBRATING JOHN CLARKE

John Clarke was a pioneering comedian, actor and writer, whose television appearances as farmer Fred Dagg in the 1970s marked the emergence of a distinctive home-grown style of New Zealand comedy. In 1977 Clarke moved permanently to Australia, where he was best known for the popular television series The Games and a series of satirical mock interviews with Australian Bryan Dawe. His wide-ranging talents included scriptwriting, music, documentary presenting, and literary pastiche, and his comic performances encompassed pratfalls, parody and political satire.

John died of a heart attack in 2017 aged 68 whilst hiking in the Grampians with his wife and friends.

PHIL JAMIESON IS GOING TO DIE

Phil Jamieson has spent the last quarter-century fronting one of Australia’s most popular and successful bands. An accomplished singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jamieson’s generation-defining lyrics and vocal melodies first became etched into rock fans’ DNA in 1995, when the Lismore-born quartet he helped form as an 18-year-old - Grinspoon - rode a new wave of alternative music to become the first act Unearthed by national youth radio station triple j with its debut single “Sickfest”.

 
So began a love affair that maintained its heat and passion for over one thousand live shows, six consecutive Top 10 debuts and multi-platinum album sales. 

Phil's also had tackled some incredibly public challenges - including an infamous battle with addiction and an ensuing media frenzy that saw him in deep confessional mode on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope in 2007.  It's perhaps these experiences which have made him more reflective than others when it comes to thinking about death and mortality...though when it comes to planning his dream Funeral, Phil's ready to get the party started.

Jamieson’s live performance talents have continued to diversify and develop as he has explored new stages and formats. Embracing a solo career, Jamieson also made the transition from live music venues to the boards of theatres around the country in 2017, being cast as St. Jimmy in the Australian stage production of American Idiot. The Broadway musical made an impactful debut with its initial Australian premiere in Brisbane, leading to a national tour in 2018 - a performance that earned Jamieson acclaim: “Phil Jamieson carried the role in Perth, and absolutely nailed it. Jamieson has more of a swagger than an in-your-face psychopathic Jimmy, which I enjoyed more than I expected...whenever Jimmy is on stage, it’s difficult to focus on anything else.” - SYN MEDIA

Jamieson has also been involved in several philanthropic and industry-specific initiatives.

CELEBRATING JASPER HAIGH

Jasper Haigh was a lively and troubled seventeen year old when he drove his car through an intersection in Geelong in 1987, dying soon after. His older brother Gideon - compartmentalising his shock and grief - grew up to be an esteemed writer.
He has published more than fifty books and contributed to more than a hundred newspapers and magazines in a decades-long journalism career. His cricket books include The Cricket War, The Summer Game and On Warne, and he has written on subjects from abortion, asbestos and architecture to incest and HV Evatt. The Office: A Hardworking History won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and Certain Admissions won a Ned Kelly Prize for true crime. 

37 years after Jasper’s death Gideon found he was unable to keep his internal tumult at bay any longer, sitting down to write about Jasper in a 72-hour burst. The result, a small but deeply powerful memoir called My Brother Jaz, is out now.

TW: Suicide, eating disorders, grief

BEN LEE IS GOING TO DIE

Ben Lee began his career as a young teenager in the early 90’s, in the Australian lo-fi punk band Noise Addict, who were discovered by taste-making artists Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys.

That began an extraordinary career that has been both eclectic and eccentric, and still growing more strange and fascinating each day. Whether collaborating in one-off projects like the Bens (with Ben Folds and Ben Kweller), producing a Grammy award winning music/comedy album for Margaret Cho (“Cho Dependent”), duetting with Sarah Silverman, writing a psychedelic children’s musical with American literary legend Tom Robbins, or simply strumming away on his guitar and putting out over 20 solo albums of songs that have made romantics swoon for multiple generations, Ben’s career is always (to quote his song “Ache 4 You”) “confusing...but never dull”.

As a curious explorer of religion and philosophy, Ben has cultivated a comfortable relationship with mortality - and his experiences as a death midwife have only deepened his understanding of a journey through lived existence. What better person to plan a dream Funeral with?

Now, collaborating with his wife, actress Ione Skye, on their company Weirder Together, Lee is supporting other artists in creating bizarre and beautiful content spanning everything from podcasts and music, to events and fanzines, as well as film projects.

LA PETITE MORT: MARYAM MASTER IS GOING TO DIE

Maryam Master is a playwright, screenwriter and author who loves creating stories for young people.

She wrote the acclaimed stage adaptations of David Walliams’ best-selling books Mr Stink, The Midnight Gang, Billionaire Boy and Ratburger – as well as Oliver Jeffers’ The Incredible Book Eating Boy, all of which premiered at the Sydney Opera House and toured across Australia.

She began her career in TV, writing for shows like Home and Away, Blinky Bill and the Jim Henson Company’s Bambaloo. In 2011 she was selected by Sesame Workshop as the writer for Elmo’s tour of Australia.

Maryam’s also a refugee who fled Iran as a child during the revolution and so much of her work reflects not just the lived trauma of growing up in conflict, but also what it was like to be an outsider in a brand new and unfamiliar country.

Maryam's first novel, Exit Through the Gift Shop, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers and the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children 2022. Her second novel, No Words, was winner of the Children's Peace Literature Award and the Readings Children's Prize 2023, and was a CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers. Her third novel Laughter is the Best Ending will be published in August 2024.