John Pinder (January 1945 – 26 May 2015) was a New Zealand-born Australian comedy producer, promoter, and festival director based in Melbourne for most of his career.
[10] Events at the Much More Ballroom ended in December 1972, apparently because of complaints from St Patrick's Cathedral (who owned the hall) about the types of music and the use of drugs.
[11] At this time, Pinder was putting a lot of effort into the production of the shows (around 12–15 a year), which had increasing amounts of comedy in them, as well as working for radio stations.
[2] After spending some time in Europe, he returned to Melbourne and worked for a construction company which planned to build an arts and shopping complex.
Comedians such as Rod Quantock, Mary Keneally, and Alan Pentland did some of their first gigs there, but Pinder could only afford to pay more than A$10 and a hat was handed around for audience contributions.
Reefer Cabaret also featured long concerts, which included several musical acts, along with comedy, poetry readings, and various theatrical, dance, or novelty shows.
After complaints from the Freemasons, Roberts moved the Reefer Cabaret to the Ormond Hall in Prahran, owned by the Blind Institute of Melbourne.
The monthly concerts included such acts as Madder Lake, Ayers Rock, Split Enz, the Renee Geyer Band and Ariel, and continued until sometime in 1976.
[4] One of their early successes was the Australian Performing Group's Back to Bourke Street, which toured several capital cities and included a run at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
Pinder became convinced it would work, and after his return he wrote a report for the state government, which they accepted, leading to the establishment of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
[14] In 1988, Pinder developed a package of 50 Australian performers to appear under the banner Oznost in the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
[23] In 2012, after Ross had accepted a redundancy package from the ABC, they were asked by a friend if they would like to run his hotel on the south-west coast in Sri Lanka for a year while he was away in the UK.
[18] Richard Stubbs paid tribute to Pinder on his 774 ABC Melbourne afternoon radio programme, saying he was "someone who demanded that you were better, someone who told you when you were rubbish, someone who stood up the back enthusiastically laughing and applauding when the audience wasn't...".
Many comedians posted tributes to Pinder on social media, including Tom Ballard, Dom Knight, and Anthony Ackroyd, along with Circus Oz and playwright Alison Croggon.
[20] He is credited with discovering and showcasing the work of many comedians, including: Los Trios Ringbarkus, Brian Nankervis, Jean Kittson,[18] Wendy Harmer, and Richard Stubbs.
[13][12] Some went on to feature in TV comedy shows, including: Geoff Brooks, Steve Blackburn, Alan Pentland, and Peter Moon, (later in Fast Forward); and Ian McFadyen, Mary-Anne Fahey, Peter Rowsthorn (actor) (The Comedy Company);[12] and Jane Turner (Fast Forward, The D-Generation, Kath and Kim, and others).