Australia’s favourite funny man: Join the Aussie road trip with Shane and Clayton Jacobson
The last time Australian moviegoers saw a busload of men barrelling along country back roads was in ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’.
This is nothing like that.
Shane Jacobson and his brother Clayton are on the road promoting their new movie in country cinemas, and they invited Angela Cox and the Sunday Night crew on board their bus for banter, belly laughs and a bit of banjo.
It’s no ordinary tour bus though – there’s a bar, huge recliner seats, and a bedroom at the back.
“It kind of is rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s without all the cool stuff,” Shane laughs. “So you know, sex, drugs, rock n roll, we don’t have any of that.”
This road trip wasn’t planned. Shane – a self-confessed revhead – snapped his Achilles tendon celebrating Daniel Ricciardo’s win at the Monaco Grand Prix. Shane developed deep vein thrombosis, making him unfit to fly.
Brother Clayton directed their latest collaboration, ‘Brothers’ Nest’. He also stars alongside Shane, playing brothers plotting to kill their stepfather.
I think people are expecting this to be slapstick, laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s not,” Shane explains. “It’s more like a Greek tragedy, and people are saying [it’s] like Coen brothers meets Hitchcock.”
Clayton agrees with his brother. “I’m so proud of the film, I’m super proud of Shane’s performance, and I love that the film is surprising people because that is not easy to do these days.”
It’s not just the film that’s surprising audiences. From Ballarat to Mildura, the Jacobson brothers have time for every last fan. They even have their own tiny patch of red carpet that they roll out anywhere and everywhere for a pop-up selfie opportunity.
With so much rubbing elbows, it doesn’t take long for the Jacobson boys to work up a thirst. The Victoria pub in Ouyen is just the ticket.
“You come to a pub like this and you meet the real Kennys, the rough cut diamonds,” explains Shane. “Everyone says the working class – I reckon they’re the working classy. It’s not like we walk into a place like this and sit down and we don’t fit in.”
Back in Melbourne’s western suburbs, these working class boys are more than at home in their dad Ron’s boxing gym – and it’s easy to see where the two sons get their comedic streaks from.
“When he was 14, [Shane] said, ‘Dad, I’m going to take up tap dancing.’ I said, ‘Well, you better come down and start. I’ll teach you to box,’ and he said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Well if you’re going to tap dance, you’ve got to be able to fight, because people are going to be wanting to take you on all the time.’ He was actually a better fighter than tap dancer.”
It seems Shane was always a performer. Still, it was a long road to success for him -from his first performance as a kid in the Scouts annual stage show, to a starring role in his brother Clayton’s home movies. He did a bit of everything from selling dentures to lighting rock shows.
Shane’s come a long way since those days. He’ll soon be back on the small screen with those talented Little Big Shots, and on stage in The Rocky Horror Show – thankfully not in fishnets, but as the Narrator. Australia is also about to see a whole lot more of Shane next Sunday on Channel Seven in The Real Full Monty – on a scale of one to ten, he says the level of awkwardness is an “87”.
It seems like Shane’s hard work is paying off.
‘Brothers’ Nest’ is currently screening at independent cinemas around Australia. For more information and details on screening locations, visit www.brothersnest.com.
Reporter: Angela Cox
Producer: Sandra Cleary
