RODNEY RUDE

Rodney Rude (born Rodney Malcolm Keft, 29 January 1943 in Nowra, New South Wales) is an Australian 'blue' stand-up comedian, poet and writer. Rude began his career performing with traveling tent shows on the showground circuit in the early 1960s, singing and playing guitar. His habit of altering the lyrics of songs to amuse himself and his audience prompted him to become a comedian. He left Australia in the mid-1960s to tour the world, and to work in America, Canada and Europe under various stage names. He was arrested by Queensland police in the mid-1980s after offending officers during a show.

He fought several long and expensive court cases defending his right to perform his show to adult audiences. His legal battle continued after police brought further obscenity charges in Western Australia where the case finally went to the full bench of the supreme court. Rodney won his court cases and all charges were quashed. After the Fitzgerald Inquiry against corruption (1987–89), set up to investigate police corruption in the state of Queensland, the police officer leading the case of obscenity against Rodney was jailed for corruption in an unrelated matter. Since that time Rodney performed without incident in all states of Australia. His long career, has garnered 12 albums all distributed by EMI Music Australia. He has been nominated six times for an ARIA award for Best Comedy Release.

According to his website, his absence from the comedy circuit in 2004 was due to his recovery from a motorcycle accident on his property, which required him to undergo a knee reconstruction. Rude toured Australia in 2006. A CD and DVD accompanied the tour, the CD 'Frog Sack' was released on 11 November 2006 and the DVD Rodney Rude Goes the Growl was released 11 October 2008. In late 2009, Rude announced he was coming out of retirement and returning to stand-up comedy in 2010.
He undertook a farewell tour in 2016 before retiring in 2017.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Rude