In June 1997, 24-year-old John Safran packed his bag, grabbed a handheld digital camera and boarded a plane to Japan. Little did he know, a “skinny, pale, hot” star would soon be born.
Over the next 100 days, Safran would create and star in 10 short films for the first season of ABC’s popular travel film competition. Race Around the World. He could get it naked in Jerusalemhe put a curse on his ex-boyfriend in Ivory Coast and entered Disneyland.
He would become an audience favorite – a cult hero – for his daring and unique videos. He was hated by one judge, director David Caesar, and ended up being disbarred after secretly recording a confession with a priest in Brazil. However, he was named the winner of the people’s choice award and a career as Australia’s No.1 TV bad boy was guaranteed.
Now, 29 years later, Safran – filmmaker, writer, radio star – is back Race Around the Worldbut this time he judges the six new kids who are sent overseas as part of the reboot of the hit ABC series.
“I definitely have an opinion,” he says. “I’m very invested because I think it’s important because they’re fighting robots now, like AI and stuff, and storytelling is important.”
It’s Friday morning and Safran will soon film the third episode of the show, now hosted by Zan Rowe. It is also about four weeks since the participants left in early April, heading to various countries such as Egypt, Moldova and the United States.
“I’ve already Simon Cowell-ed one of them,” he says. “Because I want their stories to be good … there’s a couple who have this great, like, exciting energy, where they just put themselves on the line … and I just go, ‘Oh my God, that’s great, but if you do this and this, your stories will be 10 times better.'”
And the big tip? “Don’t make a film Wikipedia Blurb Film,” he says, “That’s very difficult to make interesting.”
The new series follows roughly the same format as the original – 10 countries, 10 films, in 100 days – but some rules have been changed to allow for changes in technology.
When Safran and his teammates went out, they knew where they were going and had time to plan stories and communicate before they left. This time, the six filmmakers don’t know where they’re going, so they can’t plan ahead. They also have to edit their films on the fly, whereas in Safran’s days, their tapes were re-pasted with ABC and editing instructions.
Contacting the contestants was also more unfortunate in 1997, as they were required to call ABC once every 10 days (remember this was the age of cell phones and social media) to reassure everyone that they were still alive. And the budget? About $100 a day. Difficult? You bet.
“I found it very frustrating, especially after I thought I was going to write the first story (where he was tied up in the subway in Osaka),” says Safran. “I grew up to be an edited version of myself. And even the thing that I look like on camera, that wasn’t me, I wasn’t a camera person. I just did it because I thought it was funny.”
Many of the new cast members – Elliot, Jayden, Kate, Lucinda, Mikaela and William – were born before the first series even aired, and have all come of age in a world where being online, digital stories and selfie culture are the norm. But if you think this puts them at an advantage, Safran has other ideas.
“There’s a paradox, though, where it’s like young people are very nervous about putting things out because they know the consequences of screwing up, in a way that I never did,” he says. “There can be a different issue in some ways, like, ‘Men, you should be free and don’t worry.’ But selfie culture is great, as long as the material is strong.
Safran was never afraid to put himself in front of the camera. And in fact, one of the most important new features of digital camcorders that the original athletes had in 1997 was the ability to rotate the screen so that they could record themselves, selfie-style. And unlike some of the other contestants – many of whom have gone on to film and television careers – Safran loved being in front of the camera.
“Almost all of them just wanted to be normal porters, and they had to be dragged kicking and screaming in front of the camera,” says Safran.
He still calls his first story, where he was locked in a subway in Osaka, a tragedy (“I was so humiliated”), but it gave him strength and by the time he came to put a voodoo curse on his ex-boyfriend, “that’s when it just seemed to make sense”.
“I worked on this kind of, like, concept where the audience has a preconceived idea of what the film should be, and then I get a little clever about it,” he says. “Like, instead of being this fly on the wall and being like, ‘Oh my God, these magical people’ or whatever. I’m just a nerd in it. I didn’t think about it too hard, but I think unconsciously I was misrepresenting what I felt was the film, and my issues with it.”
Safran was also inspired by, of all things, Nick Giannopoulos and his comedy He has lost his job.
“It was the kind of comedy, where if you’re a natural, you lean into that or whatever,” he says. “And people (were) just going, ‘Oh, is that a little hack or something?’ I didn’t think it was a hack at all, by the way. However, and one thing I thought (to myself) was, ‘Listen, I’m not going to do the Jews. He has lost his job. I won’t do that.’
“And then I was being baptized in Ivory Coast, I think it was in this church, and I just thought, ‘Oh, this is dangerous’ and it’s even funnier if ‘Mom, I’m not Jewish Anymore’ is the name of this movie. So I’m going to bring up the Jewish thing just this once, and that’s it. But then it just happened to give a gift to St. Soccer Club.”
Safran’s popularity during the show grew so much that he was recognized while filming at Disneyland (where he slipped through a hole in a fence), but he was also determined that filmmaking was something he wanted to do professionally.
“I really wanted to keep working,” he says. “I didn’t want to have this personal career … when I came back, I was determined to take the opportunity, and do other projects that I wanted.”
For Safran, that is Race Around the World success soon translated into several pilots with the ABC, including one that featured his ill-fated run-in with Ray Martin, and then a small slot on Channel Seven. However, he found his feet at SBS, and an award winner Music Jamboree in 2002, then John Safran against God in 2004 (where he was unbanned from the Socceroos) and then Speaking in Tonguesin 2005, which he collaborated with a Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire (they would also later do a radio show on Triple J together).
In 2007, he ended up back on ABC, with three seasons of Race relationsin which he was infamously crucified in the Philippines. Does he still have scars?
“No,” he says. “I don’t know, some people make a big deal out of it, they’ve been crucified – I won’t say who, I won’t say which religious person – so what happens is, when the nail goes in, it goes deep, but the only thing that breaks is like this, it’s like a pin that breaks (the skin), when the skin comes out, when the skin stretches out, the skin comes back and becomes this little secret hole, So there are no scars, alas.
Since adding non-fiction and true crime to that list, and has returned to television regularly, including her new SBS documentary about freedom of expression, Shut Your Big Mouth John Safran!and an upcoming appearance on ABC’s new season Graphic Artist of the Year.
Does this mean we’re in the midst of a John Safran TV revival?
“I hope so,” he says. “I’d like it to be, as long as it leads to another writing series, 100 percent. Books are just that — I mean, they’re very rewarding — but goddamn, it’s hard.
“I’m not complaining, but it’s all about you. Even doing this SBS doco, it’s being out there with a camera man and a sound and a producer, and everything’s not about you, and you’re not worrying about every last thing, someone else is organizing the flights. It’s fun, in a different way. So look, Screen Australia. I’m hitting the decks.”
Race Around the World will premiere at 7.30pm, Sunday, June 7, on ABC and ABC iview.
