1990s
A return to Sydney in the early 1990s gave Pinder the opportunity to develop a series of festival venues, including The Starfish Club for the Adelaide Fringe Festival, where Stomp and the Tokyo Shock Boys had their Australian debut.
He followed up his fringe successes with Red Square, a vast outdoor arena build from 150 sea containers, for the 1996 Adelaide International Arts Festival, and The Starfish Club for the Sydney Festival and Sydney Theatre Company – which saw the return of Stomp from Off Broadway and the premier of the Australian international hit Tap Dogs.
The 1990s also saw Pinder move into television, initially as a consultant on Steve Vizard’s Tonight Live (Rick McKenna was that show’s executive producer). Pinder’s services had been secured by Nick Murray who, at the time, was the general manager of Vizard’s company, Artist’s Services. When Murray moved on to become the founding CEO of Foxtel’s The Comedy Channel, he took Pinder with him to serve as a creative consultant. John continued to discover new talent such as Chop-Socky and Rove McManus, whom he cast as one-half of the comedy puppets “Short and Curly”.
Read more about this topic: John Pinder (comedy Producer)