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In June 1997, a 24-year-old John Safran packed his bag, grabbed a handheld digital camera and stepped on a plane bound for Japan. Little did he know, a \u201ctoken skinny, pale, whiny\u201d star would soon be born.<\/p>\n
Over the next 100 days, Safran would create and star in 10 short films for the debut season of the ABC\u2019s hit travel documentary competition Race Around the World<\/a>. He would get nude in Jerusalem<\/a>, place a curse on his ex-girlfriend while on the Ivory Coast and break into Disneyland.<\/p>\n He would become an audience favourite \u2013 a cult hero \u2013 for his daring and eccentric videos. He was loathed by one judge, director David Caesar, and ended up disqualified after he secretly taped a confessional with a priest in Brazil. However, he was named the winner of the people\u2019s choice award and a career as Australia\u2019s No.1 TV enfant terrible was guaranteed.<\/p>\n Now, 29 years later, Safran \u2013 filmmaker, author, radio star \u2013 is back on Race Around the World, but this time he\u2019s the one judging the six newbies who have been sent overseas as part of the ABC\u2019s reboot of the popular series.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely have opinions,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m pretty invested because I think it\u2019s important because they\u2019re fighting the robots now, like AI and stuff, and storytelling is important.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a Friday morning and Safran is soon off to film episode three of the show, now hosted by Zan Rowe. It\u2019s also about four weeks since the contestants left in early April, heading for countries as diverse as Egypt, Moldova and the US.<\/p>\n \u201cI have already Simon Cowell-ed one of them,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I want their stories to be good \u2026 there\u2019s a couple of them who have this great, like, hectic energy, where they\u2019re just putting themselves on the line \u2026 and I\u2019m just going, \u2018Oh my god, so that\u2019s all great, but if you just do this and this, your stories will be like 10 times as good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Editor’s pick And the big tip? \u201cDon\u2019t film Wikipedia Blurb The Movie,\u201d he says. \u201cThat is really difficult to make interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n The new series follows roughly the same format as the original \u2013 10 countries, 10 films, in 100 days \u2013 but some of the rules have been changed to allow for the change in technology.<\/p>\n When Safran and his fellow contestants set out, they knew where they were going and had time to roughly plan out stories and make contacts before they left. This time, the six filmmakers have no idea where they are being sent, so they cannot plan ahead. They must also edit their films while on the run, whereas in Safran\u2019s day, their tapes were posted back to the ABC with editing instructions.<\/p>\n Contact with the contestants was also more haphazard in 1997, as they were only required to call the ABC once every 10 days (remember this was the time before mobile phones and social media) to reassure everyone they were still alive. And the budget? About $100 a day. Difficult? You bet.<\/p>\n \u201cI found it really so stressful, especially after I thought I\u2019d screwed up the first story [where he was locked in a subway in Osaka],\u201d says Safran. \u201cI became sharpened and became this edited version of myself. And even the thing where I\u2019m like squeaking at camera, that just wasn\u2019t me, I wasn\u2019t a squeaker at camera. I just did it because I thought it was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the new contestants \u2013 Elliot, Jayden, Kate, Lucinda, Mikaela and William \u2013 were born before the first series even aired, and they have all come of age in a world where being online, digital storytelling and selfie culture is the norm. But if you think this puts them at an advantage, Safran has other ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a counter-current, though, where it\u2019s like young people are very nervous about putting stuff out there because they know the consequences of fumbling, in a way that I never did,\u201d he says. \u201cThere might be the opposite issue in some ways, of like, \u2018Guys, you\u2019ve got to free yourself up and not worry.\u2019 But selfie culture is kind of good, as long as the material is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Safran was never afraid to put himself in front of the camera. And in fact, one of the key new features of the digital camcorders that the original racers had in 1997 was the ability to flip the screen so they could record themselves, selfie-style. And unlike some of the other contestants \u2013 many of whom have gone onto serious careers in film and television \u2013 Safran loved being in front of the camera.<\/p>\n \u201cNearly all of them just wanted to be regular doco makers, and they had to be dragged kicking and screaming in front of the cameras,\u201d says Safran.<\/p>\n He still calls his first story, where he was locked in the subway in Osaka, a disaster (\u201cI was really humiliated\u201d), but it fortified him and by the time he came to put the voodoo curse on his ex-girlfriend, \u201cthat\u2019s where it kind of just seemed to just make sense\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI did work out this sort of, like, premise where an audience has a preconception of what a documentary should be, and then me being a bit of a smartass about it,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, rather than being this fly on the wall and being all kind of, \u2018Oh my god, these magical people\u2019 or whatever. I\u2019m just being the fool in it. I didn\u2019t think about it that hard, but I think subconsciously I was subverting what I felt was a documentary, and my issues with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Safran was also inspired by, of all things, Nick Giannopoulos and his comedy Wogs Out of Work.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt was the kind of comedy, where if you are from a background, you lean into that or whatever,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd people [were] just going, \u2018Oh, is that a bit hack or something?\u2019 I didn\u2019t think it was hack at all, by the way. Anyway, and the one thing I thought [to myself] was, \u2018Listen, I\u2019m not going to do the Jewish Wogs Out of Work. I\u2019m not going to do that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then I was getting baptised in the Ivory Coast, I think it was at this church, and I just thought, \u2018Oh, this has got stakes\u2019 and it\u2019s funnier if \u2018Mum, I\u2019m not Jewish Any More\u2019 is the title of this film. So I\u2019ll just this once, I\u2019ll just bring up the Jewish stuff this once, and that\u2019s it. But then it just became like the gift that kept on giving, and I\u2019m streaking through Jerusalem for the St Kilda Football Club.\u201d<\/p>\n Safran\u2019s notoriety during the show grew so much that he was even recognised while filming at Disneyland (where he broke in through a hole in the fence), but he had also determined that filmmaking was something he wanted to do for a career.<\/p>\n \u201cI really wanted just to keep doing work,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to have this personality career \u2026 when I came back, I was determined to take advantage of it, and do other projects that I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n For Safran, that Race Around the World success soon translated into a couple of pilots with the ABC, including one that featured his infamous run-in with Ray Martin, and then a small stint on Channel Seven. However, he truly found his feet at SBS, with the award-winning Music Jamboree in 2002, then John Safran vs God in 2004 (in which he had a curse lifted on the Socceroos) and then Speaking in Tongues, in 2005, which he co-hosted with Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire<\/a> (they would also later do a radio show on Triple J together).<\/p>\n In 2007, he ended up back on the ABC, with three seasons of Race Relations, in which he was infamously nailed to a cross in the Philippines. Does he still have the scars?<\/p>\n![\"Race](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/778e05768fb775758d10f6f4bf97d4ed0d70d437.jpeg\")
Race Around The World\u2019s new host Zan Rowe with John Safran, who is now a judge on the show.<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779923713_70_0af63edec7195c7ccd4e923909100a6c063f5620.jpeg\")
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Race Around the World\u2019s new contestants (from left) Lucinda, Mikaela, Jayden, Elliot, Kate and William.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Dylan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d6594b9187e4173f64ec2e301511094d814e3ab1.jpeg\")
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The original Race Around the World crew (from left): Claudia Rowe, Ben Davies, Bentley Dean, John Safran, Daniel Marsden, Olivia Rousset, Scott Herford and Kim Traill.<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/63b4f171b96e0df976f4e876d4bf1f59e9876b48.jpeg\")
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John Safran when he had the curse lifted on the Socceroos. <\/p>\n
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