AustLit

On 8 July one hundred years ago, 31-year-old entertainer/producer Nat Phillips (1883-1932), a veteran of Australian and international variety theatre, stepped onto the stage of Sydney's Princess Theatre with 25-year-old comedian Roy Rene (1891-1954). This was the first time the pair had performed together publically. It was also the first time that Rene had appeared as the character that would become his trademark – Mo. That night, as 'Stiffy and Mo', Phillips and Rene featured in a one-act musical comedy (or revusical) called What Oh Tonight. By the time they ended their partnership 12 years later, they had forever established themselves as one of Australia's greatest-ever comedy duos.

The Stiffy and Mo revusicals, comprising more than 30 individual shows, were all written and directed by Nat Phillips. Many were titled according to the situations the pair found themselves in. Over the years, they appeared as plumbers, shopwalkers, wharfies, confidence men, surfers, dustmen, orderlies, bankers, bell boys, waiters, jockeys, soldiers and even bullfighters. Other popular productions were located in a harem, beauty parlour, and a sanatorium. Stiffy and Mo also featured in a number of pantomime extravaganzas staged by Fullers Theatres during the late 1910s and early 1920s, beginning with The Bunyip (1916).

The outrageous situations Stiffy and Mo found themselves in were not the only reasons for their popularity. They also exemplified the national identity and popular-culture attitudes then being circulated by Australians – including those serving overseas with the Australian Imperial Forces. The surviving Stiffy and Mo scripts held in the Fryer Library's Nat Phillips Collection (The University of Queensland) are clearly based on ideals such as mateship, loyalty, egalitarianism, larrikinism, practical joking, self-deprecation, and an outright refusal to bow to authority figures.

Phillips and Rene toured their alter-egos relentlessly around Australia and New Zealand until late 1928, taking only an 18-month break in the mid-1920s. When they reunited in early 1927 Just It magazine suggested that the event almost overshadowed the Duke and Duchess of York's royal visit. Even the more reserved Bulletin had to acknowledge the public fervour:

The return of Stiffy and Mo to Fullers' Theatre on Saturday night was hailed with wild acclaim. There were yells to greet the appearance of each of the re-united partners and the roof cracked when Mo addressed the audience as "Yous mob," or made a reference to the "tarts" present. The audience was so delighted at renewing acquaintance with its old favourites that it laughed at everything. It is a triumph of an extraordinary kind (Bulletin 24 March 1927, 34).

The influence of Nat Phillips and Roy Rene on the Australian variety industry and the development of an Australia comedic tradition cannot be over-estimated. They not only played a significant role in developing and popularising the revusical genre in this country but also established a precedent in comedy partnerships by doing away with the comic/straightman format. Their legacy can also be seen in a line of comedians to follow them, beginning with George Wallace and Jim Gerald, through to television era with partnerships like Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton, Hoges and Strop, and beyond.

If you'd like find out more about Stiffy and Mo, as well as people associated with either their company or the careers of Nat Phillips and Roy Rene, click on some of the links below.

You can also learn how new research into the Stiffy and Mo legend has overturned a number of long-standing myths and historical errors relating to the partnership.

For more information on the theatre of Stiffy and Mo, read the Fryer Library blog post.

Or you can read more via these AustLit records:

• Stiffy and Mo

• Nat Phillips' Stiffy and Mo Revue Company

• Nat Phillips

• Roy Rene

• Nat Phillips's Whirligigs