- David Smiedt
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David Michael Smiedt (born 2 August, 1968), is a South Africa-born, Sydney-based journalist, author and comedian. He has written seven books, including From Russia With Lunch: A Lithuanian Odyssey, Are We There Yet: Chasing a Childhood Through South Africa and Boom Boom: 100 Years of Australian Comedy.
David Smiedt
Contents
Early life
David was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in the suburbs of Parkwood and Saxonwold. David is the youngest of three children to father, Sidney Ronald "Ronnie", and mother, Renecia, with whom he emigrated from South Africa to Australia in 1986. Having completed high school in Johannesburg, David received a Bachelor of Arts (Communication) at Sydney's Macquarie University before undertaking a Diploma in Journalism at Macleay College.
Early career and journalism
He began his journalism career at Penthouse magazine and has since worked across a number of lifestyle titles, including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Madison, Men’s Health, GQ, Sunday Life, Elle, Home Beautiful and Voyeur. He claims to be the only journalist in history to have had concurrent articles in Ralph and Your Garden magazines. As a fearless reporter for women’s lifestyle titles, David has donned a pair of stilettos for a day and endured a 'manzilian' (the male Brazilian wax).
When working in-house at women's magazines, David makes daily trips to Krispy Kreme, Darrell Lea and other confectionery outlets, plying his female colleagues with fattening sugary treats that they both love and resent. The master of understanding a woman’s psyche, David is straight, but constantly gets asked if he bats for the other team. This could have something to do with his predilection for slogan T-shirts that say things such as "Last Night a DJ Shaved My Wife" and "More Issues Than French Vogue".
Comedy
Described by comedian Adam Hills, host of ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks as “a living breathing joke machine”, David started his stand-up comedy career at the Local in St Kilda in 2006 and has since gone on to perform at the Comedy Store in Sydney, the Harold Park Hotel, the Roxbury, the Friend In Hand, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Comic Strip in New York. He MCs one of Sydney's most popular comedy nights at the Marble Bar in Sydney's Hilton Hotel every Tuesday night.
Interests
David is known for his love of animated television series The Simpsons. His favourite quotes are purported to include "It was like that when I got here", "Yeah I suck... suck like a fox!" and "TVsa?".
David blames his South African roots for his fanatical devotion to rugby and cricket, although he has since swapped the Springboks and Proteas for the Wallabies and Ricky Ponting’s crew. David recently announced his appreciation of the English rugby team’s newfound association with cult romance novels Mills & Boon, coming up with a number of title ideas for them. These include Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage; Ruck Me Like You Mean It; The Hooker and the Eight Man; and Pulled Off At Half Time. He’s yet to hear back from the publishers.
Books by David Smiedt
- Boom Boom: 100 Years Of Australian Comedy (Hodder Headline, 1999)
- Delivering The Male (Penguin, 2000)
- Girls’ Night In: Gentlemen By Invitation (anthology) (Penguin, 2001)
- Girls’ Night In 2: Big Night Out (anthology) (Penguin, 2002)
- Prince Charming: Spot The Stayers From The Players (Landsdowne Press, 2003)
- Are We There Yet? Chasing A Childhood Through South Africa (UQP/Penguin, 2004 and Random House UK 2006)
- From Russia With Lunch: A Lithuanian Odyssey (UQP, 2008)
References
External links
Categories:- People from Johannesburg
- South African expatriates in Australia
- Australian people of South African descent
- South African journalists
- 1968 births
- Living people
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