Sandwiched between the Arts Centre and Hamer Hall, in Melbourne\u2019s arts precinct, is a sculpture of wave-like steel structures called Forward Surge.<\/p>\n
On the day we walk past, it is hidden behind construction fencing, but Charlie Pickering has fond memories of the place. \u201cAs a teenager, I would almost every weekend get kicked out of here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He and his friends would catch the train into town, skateboarding the rails and stairs along St Kilda Road\u2019s corporate buildings, before they got to the steep slopes of Forward Surge, where they\u2019d use the sculpture as a quarter pipe. \u201cI was a public menace, obviously,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The skateboarding-obsessed teen has given way to a genial man nearing 50, with salt and pepper stubble and close-cropped hair. An easy interlocutor, brimming with anecdotes as we stroll up St Kilda Road, Pickering has been a perennial on Australian screens \u2013 current affairs and comedy programs in particular \u2013 for much of this century to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always had that performative attention-seeking element,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI was trying to put on shows when I was about four. I used to sing into the electric cable on the back of a trailer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickering spent a single week working at a Melbourne law firm before leaving to pursue standup comedy. Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Across the road from Hamer Hall, we descend into Alexandra Gardens, and Pickering points across the river at 101 Collins, an imposing commercial tower in the city. The building used to house the law firms then known as Blake Dawson Waldron and Freehills, which both offered Pickering a job after he graduated with an arts law degree from Monash University.<\/p>\n
He spent a single week at Blakes before leaving to pursue standup comedy. He had been \u201c100% certain\u201d since he was 12 that this was what he wanted to do with his life. His parents, both pharmacists, had worked hard to provide him with an exclusive education at Melbourne\u2019s Brighton Grammar, but accepted his decision to quit: \u201cThey let me move back in with them. They were so supportive and helpful, but there was obviously disappointment \u2026 I think they would have just been, more than anything, concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
They needn\u2019t have worried: an expansive career in entertainment has followed. Pickering became one of the original hosts of The Project, spent a stint as Gen X team captain on Talkin\u2019 \u2019Bout Your Generation, and since 2015 has hosted the news satire program The Weekly on the ABC.<\/p>\n
Despite his career successes, Pickering had long struggled with a feeling that he hadn\u2019t achieved enough. He is quietly reflective when discussing this, self-conscious it \u201cmight sound silly\u201d. Things changed with an ADHD diagnosis three years ago, which was \u201clike looking back on my life and seeing everything click into place\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got diagnosed I understood that I had been using all of this extra time to catch up and to get things done, because the administration of life took longer,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce I had kids [Pickering has two children, with the writer Sarah Krasnostein], I didn\u2019t have that time, and the wheels fell off.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was some grief involved in the diagnosis: \u201cJust understanding that a huge portion of life \u2013 for me, it was like 45 years \u2013 would have been very different had you known this really important thing about yourself and how your brain works.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has \u201cmade peace\u201d over time with the feeling that he didn\u2019t capitalise more on moments of high momentum in his career. Ambition has clearly played its part, but the impression Pickering gives is less that of someone overtly driven by achievement than an inexorable interest in his work.<\/p>\n
Pickering says he will never claim to be a journalist and his new ABC Drive gig is about \u2018being interested in the world\u2019. Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cI could just keep working and working \u2026 I love every minute of what I do,\u201d he says. \u201cI love a new problem to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, in addition to the weekly radio show Thank God It\u2019s Friday!, Pickering has a new broadcast gig, hosting Drive on ABC Radio Melbourne.<\/p>\n
When first approached for the role, his initial reservation was whether \u201cI\u2019m grownup enough for it yet\u201d.<\/p>\n
He will never claim to be a journalist, he says; the hosting gig is \u201cstill [about] being interested in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked what he wants to achieve in the role, he gives the question some thought. \u201cI want to be useful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe in hearing, listening to, understanding more diverse viewpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n
The threatening skies finally open and, sheltering from the rain, we continue the conversation inside Mr Summit, over chicken, cheese and mayo toasties. He has suggested the cafe for its $10 meal and coffee deal \u2013 appealing for someone on an ABC wage, he quips, smiling. \u201cI\u2019m in a good mood!\u201d he tells the woman at the counter.<\/p>\n
As we wait for our food, he gets on a roll about social media, a topic about which he clearly feels strongly. As he tackles these thornier subjects, Pickering is still an effortless conversationalist, thoughtful one moment, laughing the next.<\/p>\n
Pickering is critical of the clip economy \u2026 \u2018You don\u2019t get enough people paying attention to one thing long enough.\u2019 Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s such a lie about social media. There\u2019s no context, but there\u2019s the illusion of connection,\u201d Pickering says firmly. He describes algorithms being \u201cdesigned to generate anger and division to increase engagement\u201d as \u201ca really sinister way to run a business\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to be able to just disagree, or not like a thing someone said \u2026 social media has a lot to answer for.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is also critical of the clip economy<\/a>, in which short soundbites from longer conversations such as podcast interviews are clipped up for social media, designed to maximise engagement.<\/p>\n \u201cTo atomise [storytelling] means we\u2019re losing something \u2026 what that eventually means is we lack the ability to keep the powerful accountable.\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t get enough people paying attention to one thing long enough to do something about it.\u201d Democracy, he believes, \u201csuffers as a result of it\u201d.<\/p>\n Pickering found himself at the centre of his own viral moment last week when, outside the ABC studio, he was subjected on livestream to a barrage of questions by the rightwing provocateur Avi Yemini<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pickering was hoping to interview people \u2013 outside the building for an anti-ABC protest \u2013 on their concerns about the ABC, and to air their views on his Drive program.<\/p>\n Yemini spotted Pickering and asked what he thought about the ABC\u2019s appointment of the former Australian of the Year Grace Tame to host a four-part podcast series<\/a> about autism. Tame\u2019s hiring has been criticised by some because of comments she made in an ABC interview<\/a> about Israel and Gaza, including referring to the rape of Israeli women by Hamas on 7 October 2023 as \u201cpropaganda\u201d and \u201cdebunked\u201d.<\/p>\n On the live stream Yemini asked Pickering how he felt about Tame\u2019s hiring \u201cafter all of that\u201d, which appeared to refer to her use of the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d<\/a> at the Sydney protest against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.<\/p>\n Pickering, who converted to Judaism before marrying, said: \u201cI do actually think it\u2019s problematic, that\u2019s my personal opinion, and I think \u2026 as a Jewish Australian, there is a complete misunderstanding of a lot of the words that are said and what the true meaning of them are.\u201d<\/p>\n In the livestreamed full conversation \u2013 nearly 20 minutes long \u2013 Pickering tries to engage with accusations of editorial bias at the ABC, disagreeing with a claim by Yemini that the majority of Australians wanted to defund the national broadcaster. But the \u201cproblematic\u201d comment was clipped up and went viral.<\/p>\n Echoing comments he made on his Drive show days after the incident, Pickering describes Tame as \u201can outstanding advocate for survivors and women. I have always championed her on The Weekly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We live and learn\u2019 \u2026 Pickering in Melbourne\u2019s arts precinct. Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n When I ask about the incident, Pickering becomes more contemplative, as if choosing his words carefully \u2013 wary, perhaps, of how they may be interpreted.<\/p>\n \u201cFor anyone to suggest that I was commenting on her ability to host a podcast on autism \u2026 my feelings are irrelevant in this, but that was nothing about what I was saying. And it also saddens me that anyone would think that I would agree to an interview with that provocateur. I was out in good faith, trying to talk to protesters who were outside the ABC and were critical of ABC bias, and I wanted to get their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI was ambushed, essentially, while I was \u2026 repeatedly trying to talk to other people and trying to, as gracefully as possible, get out of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Pickering pauses again, serious, his toastie untouched. He describes himself as \u201ca huge fan of Grace Tame\u201d, and expresses deep disappointment \u201cthat it\u2019s been portrayed that I feel otherwise in any way\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was asked a question about something that was of importance to myself and my family, and I was clear to say I was speaking \u2026 on behalf of myself and not my organisation.\u201d After the incident, an ABC investigation found Pickering had not breached<\/a> its code of conduct or public comment guidelines.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably should have just walked away. But we live and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Pickering is on 774 ABC Melbourne Drive on weekdays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sandwiched between the Arts Centre and Hamer Hall, in Melbourne\u2019s arts precinct, is a sculpture of wave-like steel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-732501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}