Peter Goers

Peter Goers (born July 1951) is an actor, director, reviewer, former academic and current host of the highy successful radio program 'the evening show' on 891 ABC Adelaide, South Australia [http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1869440.htm Peter Goers ] ] . His career has spanned over thirty years in the entertainment industry across a range of different mediums and formats including national television, print, radio and theatre. Goers is well known for his charity work in rural communities, his attitude towards the promotion of several social and arts related issues and his especially warm demeanour and spontaneous on-air personality.

Early life

Born in Adelaide and educated at Woodville High School, Goers is a 5th generation Australian of German and Irish stock and has claimed to have an extraordinarily happy childhood greatly influenced by his grandmothers who lived nearby. Among his first and happiest memories was being introduced to the Marx Brothers by his father at the age of eight, when they watched the movie Duck Soup. In retrospect, Goers believes this event was highly influential in his decision to pursue a career as a performance artist, saying that it was a 'revelation' and that Groucho Marx remains a 'personal god'

Another influence in Goers' early life was teacher/ex South Adelaide Footballer Mick Rivers, a former miner who 'saw me as an actor and put me on the right track'. Parker, Richard. 2006 "the Critic That Ate Adelaide", The Think Tank, p 22]

In 1982 at the age of 31, both his parents were killed in a plane accident in New Orleans, 1982. He Describes the death of his parents sadly as 'a signal event in one's life)

Career

In 1983, Goers started reviewing films for tong time radio host Carole Whitelock on the ABC (previously called 5AN), which led to commercial contracts including ten years at the Aus-stereo network which he described as:

"a great job, but it rather spoiled me for movies because when you have to see 6 a week it really puts you off – you sit at home with tears rolling down your face thinking ‘I’d rather have root canal fillings than sit through Hulk Hogan’s Suburban Commando"Parker, Richard. 2006 "the Critic That Ate Adelaide", The Think Tank, p 23]

Goers worked throughout the eighties as an actor/performer and once as a playwright, holding the record for the only person in the history of South Australia with four different plays with interlocking seasons, performing in around 10 productions a year. Later he gained employment as a full time restorer of the performing arts collection at the SA festival centre, working there for four years until 1987.

During the same period, Jason Daniel, a progressive arts editor at the Advertiser, had heard goers' movie reviews and suggested that he also review theatre for The Advertiser, which he did from 85-96. Infamous for his unforgiving criticism, he became known as 'the critic that ate Adelaide' commenting that:

"my reviews were very black or white, gush or groan – this is great go and see it, this is terrible have a root canal filling"

Goers also hosted horror movies on Channel Ten Adelaide during the eighties. He describes television as "a very difficult medium and one in which you either have it or you don't - and I didn't". His first Review was for The Black Castle starring Boris Karloff. He was paid only $17.25 for the review.

Mid career

From 1996 to 1999, Goers travelled to Turkey for a holiday, fell in love with the region and settled down for three years teaching English at a Turkish university.

Upon his return to Australia in 1999, he was given a talk back spot at 5AA Commercial Radio, though this was largely unsuccessful due to a constant clash of political beliefs with his listeners:

"It didn’t work because it’s a right wing station and they don’t want a left wing voice. Radio is mainly about affirmation in my opinion, and although there is occasionally opposition, people want to hear what they want to hear and an alternative voice is annoying to the audience."

In 2000, Goers stared work as a columnist at the News Limited publication, The Sunday Mail.

The Evening Show

In 2000, Goers received a call to audition for the ABC which he describes as "just the most unexpected thing and on the day I was to go in and have a 20 minute audition Carole Whitelock took ill and they rang up and said you’re on!"

The Evening show features on 891 ABC Adelaide from 7:30PM on weekdays and is presented in a magazine format, with Goers interviewing local, national and international celebrities and academics, in addition to a regular call-back segment where he takes opinions and anecdotes from the general public on a range of current affairs. Goers also has several regular guests or 'features' including Movie reviews on Thursdays with Dr Nick Prescott from the department of Screen Studies at Flinders University [http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/reviews/] , 'Goers' Gal's', and an evening preview of NightLife with Tony Delroy [ [http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/ Nightlife :: Home ] ] .

At the end of every show, Goers signs off with the line "Goodnight Mrs Calabash wherever you are". He says of this; "It comes from the American comedian Jimmy Durante who used it as his sign off and I love it. Durante would never admit who Mrs Calabash was but it was supposed that it was a code name for his wife or maybe a landlady who'd been kind to him in his early years. I do have a particular lady in mind but I also say it for all lady listeners".

References