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John Safran's Music Jamboree was a light-hearted Australian music documentary television series, hosted by John Safran for SBS television. The program was produced by Selin Yaman and directed by Craig Melville, Clayton Jacobson and a number of other directors under the production company Ghost of Your Ex-Boyfriend Productions in association with SBS Independent. It screened in 2002, and consisted of sketches and outlandish public stunts, typical of Safran's work. The series won two Australian Film Institute Awards; "Best Comedy Series" and "Most Innovative Program Concept". SBS followed the series up with the similarly styled John Safran vs. God in 2004. An infamous stunt of the series was sneaking nine friends into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by dressing them up as the masked American metal band, Slipknot. The producers arranged entry for the impostors by pretending to be an American management company over the phone. Other stunts included disguising himself as well known entertainers such as Ozzy Osbourne and Prince to harass the public, sketch versions of music videos such as Eminem, the creation of Jew Town, a Jewish boy band to compete with Christian pop, and returning to Yeshivah College to pay homage to Kevin Bacon in Footloose. He also details his time in the hip-hop group Raspberry Cordial, and the related incident in which he met the Beastie Boys and the band's former DJ attempted to steal his girlfriend at the time.
SBS
10
30 min
1. Opening Titles: Def Leppard 2. Footloose Mixed dancing was banned at my religious Jewish school, ala the movie Footloose starring Kevin Bacon. So ten years after graduation I stormed back onto the school grounds Bacon-style and cut Footloose, in some mad act of seeking vindication and closure that I'm sure a psychiatrist could explain better than me. 3. Music Mole: ARIA Awards John talks with the Music Mole about record companies planning to boycott the 2001 ARIA awards, due to the head of the ARIAs that year being Dennis Handler, who at the time was head of Sony Australia. 4. Pulled album covers John presents the issue of album covers that have been pulled due to a major faux pas, controversial images, or pressure from specific groups such as McDonald's. 5. Slipknot John attempts to get 9 guys into a very elitist nightclub by dressing them up as the band Slipknot. 6. World of Instruments Frenzal Rhomb playing "Punch in the Face" with the instruments of Pakistan
Jul 1, 2002
1. Opening Titles: NKOTB 2. Musicians and Guns, and Eminem does community service at a preschool Eminem pistol whipped some guy in a parking lot for kissing his girl. What a romantic! The judge told Eminem to submit ideas to the court for community service stating "They must be impactful to young people". Check out this video featuring Music Jamboree's idea - Eminem helps out at a child care centre. 3. The ban on glow-sticks, and John vs. Steve Price from 3AW John tries to find out why the Drug Enforcement Agency considers glow-sticks to be drug-paraphernalia and wants them illegal. John takes on an 3AW announcer over his opinions on Ecstasy. 4. Music Mole: The Zomba Record Label deal with Rupert Murdoch 5. Music helping coma patients John explores the idea that playing music to a coma patient can help revive them. 6. World of Instruments Magic Dirt playing Dirty Jeans with the instruments of Indonesia.
Jun 24, 2002
1. Ozzy Osbourne Do Ozzy Osbourne records contain hidden suicidal messages when played backwards? John memorized Osbourne's, "Suicidal Solution" backwards and approached punters on the streets for his scientifically watertight research. 2. Opening Titles - Song that goes "VZIIOSHP" 3. Fairlight John proves just how Australian starting a hip-hop band is by showing that the Sampler was first developed, designed, and manufactured in Australia. 4. Music Mole - Peter Andre The Mole tells how cross-media ownership doesn't always work out, when a press that reviews records owned by Rupert Murdoch ridiculed Peter Andre, who is signed under a record label owned by Murdoch. 5. Rage John shows just how easy it is to make a music video for the ABC show Rage by attaching a camera to the head of his friend's dog's head and sending in the footage with some quickly made techno music. 6. World of Instruments This week it's Mental as Anything playing My Nips are Getting Bigger with the instruments of Iran.
Jul 8, 2002
1. Opening Titles: Rage Against the Machine 2. Prince Rumour has it Prince recently became a Jehovah's Witness. So what if Prince tried to spread the faith door-to-door? 3. Music Mole: Songwriting Royalties The Mole reveals that unless a performer actually writes a song they're lucky to get any money at all. 4. Popstars Continuing on with the previous segment about songwriting royalties, John shows how the New Zealand winners of the TV show Popstars hardly got any money in spite of their Golden albums because of the TV network's contracts. 5. Joey Fatone John asks you to take part in a world exclusive Joey Fatone interactive television experiment, and show that you are better looking than Joey, and hence have more right to be in N'Sync. 6. World of Music This week's it's The Titanics playing Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun with the instruments of India.
Jan 15, 2002
1. Opening Titles: A Tribe Called Quest 2. The Rules John reminisces about when he was young and in the nightclub scene, back in the mid to late 90's. 3. Disney A lot of bands try to project a "danger is my middle name" image, but how many can say they were kicked off a record label for being a bad-arse? Glen Dansig and the Insane Clown Posse can, both of whom were kicked off theirs by Disney. 4. Music Mole: Payola Although the method of payola, where record companies pay radio stations to favour one of their songs, was outlawed over 40 years ago, the Mole reveals a new form of this method being used today, called payola-by-proxy. 5. Classics Local councils all over the world are using an anti-gang method of playing classical music in public places. Haven't these people seen "A Clockwork Orange"? Classical music is what sets them off! 6. World of Music This week, it's TISM playing their song "(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River" with the instruments of Greece.
Jul 22, 2002
1. Opening Titles: The Smiths 2. Scrabble In the new millennium, John proposes a new form of hip-hop battle: hip-hop scrabble. 3. Music Mole: Human Nature Rumour has it that one album by Human Nature was costing the record company Sony around $40 per album in advertising costs, when the album was sold for only $30. 4. Scientology John puts forward the question that many of you may not want asked, and even less of you will want answered: Is Beck a Scientologist? 5. Inpress John shows how an upcoming band can get a great review in the local music magazine by simply writing your own. 6. World of Instruments This week, it's Sonic Animation playing their song Evil with the instruments of Turkey.
Jul 29, 2002
1. Opening Titles: Pink Floyd 2. Jew'town John presents how successful Christian music is, and then tries to capitalise on the Jewish music market by signing his band Jew'town to the big American Christian label Floodgate Records. 3. Riders John tells the tale of the rise and fall of his short-term hip-hop band Raspberry Cordial. He also hands out Rockstar Rider Ring of Reward prizes, consisting of what big-name bands get as special requests for doing performances. 4. Music Mole: Video Clips The Mole reveals that Australian music video directors are lucky to get paid for doing a video, but once the band becomes successful the Australian directors are rejected. 5. Van Dyke Parks Ala Van Dyke Parks' megaflop Song Cycles, John gives his fans the chance to exchange their worn-out copy of his Raspberry Cordial cassette along with 1c, and he'll give you 2 new copies for you and an unenlightened friend, plus an essay written by John about why his music was so misunderstood and ahead of its time, entitled Everyone Else is Stupid. 6. World of Instruments This week it's Ross Wilson playing Eagle Rock with the instruments of the Republic of Guinea.
Aug 5, 2002
1. Opening Titles: Billy Bragg 2. Get Your Hands Off My Girlfriend 3. Music Mole: Rock Magazines 4. Sony 5. George Harrison 6. World of Instruments: Scandal'us "Me, Myself and I"
Aug 12, 2002
1. Opening Titles: Sex Pistols 2. Evil Clowns 3. Heavy Metal 4. Music Mole: U2 5. P. Diddy 6. World Of Instruments: 1200 Techniques "Karma"
Aug 19, 2002
1. Opening Titles: Geto Boys 2. Foo Fighters 3. Rock Eisteddfod 4. Music Mole: World Music 5. The Making of Music Jamboree
Aug 26, 2002
Himself
