John Michael Safran (; born 13 August 1972) is an Australian radio personality, satirist, documentary maker and author, known for combining humour with religious, political and ethnic issues. First gaining fame appearing in Race Around the World in 1997, Safran went on to produce a series of documentaries, television shows and host radio programs.
Safran is known for his television stunts, which include placing a fatwa on Australian television host Rove McManus, sneaking nine young men into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by disguising them as members of American nu metal band Slipknot, running through Jerusalem wearing nothing but the beanie and scarf of St Kilda Football Club, driving a remote-controlled seagull with a cigarette onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and his confrontation with A Current Affair host Ray Martin.
He currently works as a journalist and author. He released his latest book, Squat, in October 2024.
Early life
Safran was born in Melbourne to Jewish parents. His maternal grandparents were Polish Jewish Bundists. Safran's mother, Gitl, was born in Uzbekistan as they were fleeing their home country for Australia. She died in 2003. His paternal ancestors were German Jews and left shortly before the rise of Nazi Germany. He has one older sister, Margaret.
He grew up in Balwyn North and attended North Balwyn Primary School, Balwyn High School and Yeshivah College from Year 8 onwards.
thumb|Yeshivah College, Melbourne
During his final year in high school, Safran formed the hip-hop group Raspberry Cordial with his friend Chris Lumsden. They played to some success, receiving high rotation airplay on the city's community radio, playing many gigs in Melbourne and coming second in the RMIT Battle of the Bands competition.
After winning a government youth music initiative, they followed up with Taste Test, of which 500 copies were pressed. Of those only 93 sold, so the remaining 407 had to be crushed. He said that the world just "wasn't ready for white rappers then" and Raspberry Cordial "broke down the wall that Eminem's been able to walk through", referencing the well-known Caucasian rapper Eminem and his success in an industry predominantly African-American.
Career
1997–1998: Race Around the World
Safran's first experience of national fame came via Race Around the World, a television competition for young documentarians run by the ABC. In his audition tape, Safran was required to submit ten seconds of black, but instead he submitted ten seconds of yellow.
Safran started the race off timid and tame, being locked inside an Osaka subway station in his first entry. However, he quickly broke what he called the "fear barrier" to film his now famous segments. He ran streaking naked through the streets of Jerusalem wearing only the scarf and beanie of his favourite football club, St Kilda, to prove that God is Jewish (St Kilda's only Grand Final win fell on the same day as Yom Kippur). Martin's connection with this executive at the ABC is suspected to be a reason the series never made it to air. The Ray Martin segment was later played on Media Watch, John Safran: The Lost Pilot and on YouTube. Though all unsuccessful, the pilots became hits via the Internet among university students. Safran also recorded a parody of Baz Luhrmann's song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" entitled "Not the Sunscreen Song", which includes lines such as "Never live in Adelaide, it's a hole" and "Remember, you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex". It peaked at No. 20 in 1998 and was nominated for an ARIA. In Triple M's 2005 Greatest Songs Ever Written and Performed Since the Beginning of Time poll, "Not the Sunscreen Song" came in at #706 – one spot above "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.
Safran also presented segments for the Seven Network's now defunct The Late Report, some were also screened in the United Kingdom with Channel 4's Disinformation program. Safran attained police attention for a stunt to try and coerce cricketer Shane Warne into breaking a "no smoking" clause in an advertising contract with a nicotine gum manufacturer. Safran drove a remote controlled seagull with a cigarette onto the MCG pitch during a match. He was arrested for "pitch invasion", but the charges were dropped. Screened on SBS on Saturday nights, it opened Safran's work to youth 12 to 20 years old, who had not seen the original Race Around the World material. The show won the AFI award in 2003 for "Best Comedy Series".
2004–2005: John Safran vs God
In August 2004 he debuted his new show John Safran vs God, also on the SBS television network. The first seven episodes were typical Safran informative satire. The series' finale featured Safran being exorcised of demons which had supposedly possessed him during his dabblings with world religions. The exorcism was performed by well-known Christian fundamentalist Bob Larson. In an interview with an Australian radio personality, Safran said that he "felt something was going on", and that "there was something about the expression on my face". In an interview on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope program, he claimed that he had no memory of the events during the exorcism, and stated that the footage shown on the show was merely the most interesting from hours of footage. John Safran vs God won a 2005 AFI Award for "Best Comedy Series".
Before the exorcism, Safran went to Mozambique to have a curse, previously placed on the Australian national football team by a now-deceased witch doctor, lifted. He and former Australian football team captain Johnny Warren were covered in chicken's blood in the process. Subsequently, on 16 November 2005, Australia qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974.
2005: Speaking in Tongues
In 2005 and 2006, Safran co-hosted a television talk show entitled Speaking in Tongues with Father Bob Maguire, a Catholic priest who was featured in John Safran vs God. The 12-part series broadcast on SBS Television and began on 7 November 2005.
2007–2010: Race Relations
Safran spent portions of 2007 in Los Angeles shooting a pilot entitled John Safran Saves America for American MTV in which he tried to convince emos to fight in Iraq, visited therapists who claim they can cure people of racism, and attempted to become gay to increase his standing in Hollywood. Safran stated in an interview that he had not heard back from the production company Reveille Productions whether the program has been purchased for production or not but as time went by, "the answer isn't getting any yesser".
In 2009 John Safran's Race Relations, an eight-part comedy documentary television series, was picked up by the ABC. As part of this series, on 10 April 2009, John Safran took part in a devotional crucifixion, an annual event occurring on Good Friday in the Philippines. Safran was crucified in Barangay Kapitangan, Paombong, Bulacan, just outside Manila along with three other men and one woman. He had nails driven through his hands and feet and hung on the cross for five minutes before being taken down and given medical treatment in a nearby tent set up for the purpose. It was nominated for a 2010 Logie Award in the category of Light Entertainment.
Radio presenter and Sunday Night Safran
, Safran had been a regular host of Melbourne community radio station 3RRR (Triple R) on its morning show "Breakfasters". Additionally, he co-hosted the weekly radio show Sunday Night Safran on national youth radio station Triple J with Father Bob Maguire. After a lengthy hiatus late 2008 due to a busy filming schedule, Sunday Night Safran returned to the airwaves on 12 July 2009. The program ended at the end of 2015.
The program was iconic because the co-hosts talked to each other for much longer than instructed to (one such incident involved Fr Bob and Safran looking up the word monstrance in a dictionary following a dispute) and referring to the audience as "Dear Listeners". By Safran's own admission, Maguire and he "only seem to talk about Scrabble and White Supremacists".
During the program's run, Safran and Maguire were able to get interviews from people such as religious scholar Reza Aslan, Julian Assange's mother Christine, The Exorcist star Linda Blair, philosopher and School of Life founder Alain de Botton, writer, retired prison doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, West Memphis Three Damien Echols, antitheist Christopher Hitchens, conspiracy theorist David Icke, former white supremacist skinhead Frank Meeink, pro-euthanasia doctor Philip Nitschke, The Act of Killing director Joshua Oppenheimer, journalist and writer Jon Ronson, true crime writer and Ted Bundy co-worker Ann Rule, the Lizardman Erik Sprague, African-American pro-Israel political activist and Zionist Chloé Valdary, Jewish activist against child sexual abuse Manny Waks, psychic Lisa Williams and John Safran's dad, Alex.
Non-fiction writing and journalism
After discovering that a subject of his series Race Relations, "Mississippi's most notorious white supremacist" Richard Barrett had been murdered, Safran returned to Mississippi to cover the trial. In 2013 Penguin Books published Safran's memoir of his experiences on this trip, Murder in Mississippi (published as God'll Cut You Down in the US). In 2014 he received a Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime for the book. Safran writes for a number of newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald and Vice News.
Safran has also written a book about extremism in Australia, titled Depends What You Mean By Extremist. It was published in May 2017.
His investigation into Big Tobacco, Puff Piece was published in August 2021. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Nonfiction.
His book Squat, released in October 2024, describes his experience squatting in a Los Angeles mansion owned by Kanye West.
Personal life
Safran's favourite board game is Scrabble. However, he prefers to play one-on-one compared with four or more players, as he considers that a one-on-one game is a "game of skill" instead of a "game of luck". He also owns all the comprehensive Scrabble dictionaries. A portrait by Avraham Vofsi titled John Safran as David and Goliath was a finalist in the 2022 Archibald Prize.
Safran has stated that he believes in a force or unifying spirit, and has some "supernatural beliefs". He went on to explain that he doesn't think "these things have to be absolutely true to sort of be invigorating". Furthermore, he thinks mysticism is "a bit like trying to see how long you can hold your breath underwater or like driving without a seatbelt and it’s just like it’s fun. Like so basically religion is a bit like – trying to ban religion is like trying to ban snowboarding or something. It’s just like the rituals are just – can be really fun".
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Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Year
! rowspan="2" | Title
! colspan="5" | Functioned as
|-
! Writer
! Producer
! Host
! Actor
! Notes
|-
| 1997
| Race Around the World
|
|
|
|
| Racer
|-
| 1998
| John Safran: Master Chef
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 1998
| John Safran: Media Tycoon
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 1999
| The Late Report
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 2000
| The Big Schmooze
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 2002
| Music Jamboree
|
|
|
|
| Won 2003 AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series
|-
| 2004
| John Safran vs God
|
|
|
|
| Won 2005 AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series
|-
| 2004
| Medusa: First Date (Short)
|
|
|
|
| Parrot
|-
| 2004
| Dentally Disturbed (Short)
|
|
|
|
| Radio DJ
|-
| 2005
| Webster Say (Short)
|
|
|
|
| Slacks man
|-
| 2005-2006
| Speaking in Tongues
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 2008
| Professor Pebbles
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|
|
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| Voice
|-
| 2009
| John Safran's Race Relations
|
|
|
|
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|-
| 2011
| Jedis & Juggalos: Your Census Guide
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|-
| 2011
| The Bazura Project
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| Lee's father
|-
| 2012
| Cedric & Hope (Short)
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| Lemming
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| 2013
| In Bob We Trust
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|
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| Himself
|-
| 2016
| The Goddam Election!
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|
|
|-
| 2022
| King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Black Hot Soup (DJ Shadow's "My Own Reality" Re-Write Music Video)
|
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| Dancer
|}
Discography
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:13em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:1em;"| Year
! scope="col" colspan="1"| Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:11em;"| Album
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| AUS<br>
|-
! scope="row"| Melbourne Tram
| rowspan="3"| 1991
| —
| rowspan="3"| Melbourne Tram
|-
! scope="row"| "There's No Kangaroos in My Backyard"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "Let's Play Matchbox Cars"
| —
|-
! scope="row"| "University Elevator Music"
| 1993
| —
| rowspan="1"| Taste Test
| rowspan="1"| 2002
| —
| rowspan="2"
|-
! scope="row"| "Some Bobby That I Used to Know" <br>
| rowspan="1"| 2012
| —
|-
|align="center" colspan="6" style="font-size:90%"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.
|}
References
External links
- John Safran's Official website
- Watch John Safran: Media Tycoon pilot made for the ABC
- Watch TV pilots made for ABC
- Sunday Night Safran Safran's Triple J radio show homepage