ROLF HARRIS MAKES A COMPLETE SHOW

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 19

ROLF HARRIS MAKES A COMPLETE SHOW

For nearly two hours last evening the 30-year-old bearded Australian singer and composer. Rolf Harris, kept a crowd which threequarters filled the Repertory Theatre, amused, interested and even at times flabbergasted. Rolf Harris is not just a singer and composer. He is a complete show himself. *

Harris proved that besides composing songs, many of which were to well-known tunes, he is a complete artist, linguist, ventriloquist and comedian. He also showed himself as a better than average piano-accordian player. Harris was on the stage for the whole of the second half of the programme and after- he had drawn a self portrait of himself with a full-sized paint brush in tire first five minutes of the half he had the crowd completely with him.

Well-known New Zealand Maori names and even the recent Christchurch weather came under Harris’s satire. His animal sound impersonations in "How much is that Doggy in the Window" were excellent: His jokes were at all times funny without being coarse or exaggerated. Most of Harris's songs were obviously composed by him but in the better-known ones the audience joined in and the singing of "Maori Battalion" must have been audible some distance away.

Other well-known songs which Harris sang were “Galway Bay,” “The Wild Colonial. Boy,” “Waltz-

ing Matilda." and his own latest composition, “Six White Boomers" <a boomer being a large kangaroo). “Tie Me Kangaroo Down. Sport." the song which brought Harris to fame, was only sung once by its composer but it was played as an overture and also as a farewell after Harris had left the stage. The first halt of the programme was taken up by local entertainers, of whom by far the most impressive was a vocal group called "The Southerners." Murray Chenery’s rendition of “Grande" drew loud applause, and Gillian Harris, a talented young singer, and Heather White, playing a piano-accordian, were also popular.