Rock’n’roll surfer Proud storyteller
LUCAS Proudfoot can tell a story just by sitting in the sand and playing his didgeridoo.
Yesterday’s yarn, delivered alongside other authors and senior figures from the city council library service and the Somerset Celebration of Literature, was all about “Books Set Free’’.
The initiative, in which new and pre-loved library books were stacked on book shelves lining the sands of Surfers Paradise and free for anyone to grab yesterday, was aimed at getting adults back into the reading habit.
More books will be given away today and tomorrow.
Yesterday’s beach event was also used to promote Somerset College’s Celebration of Literature festival next month.
With up to 70 schools and an expected audience of up to 18,000 across three days, deputy headmaster and festival chairman Michael Brohier describes it as “the biggest school festival in the nation”.
Most festival-goers will be primary and secondary students, so organisers and the line-up of more than 30 authors, entertainers and screenwriters know they will have to work hard to keep young minds enthralled.
That’s where Proudfoot excels.
“They’re going to see a live show with guitar, didgeridoo and drums, they’re going to be up dancing. Bang, bang, bang, 40 minutes of high energy,’’ he said of each of his four sessions at the festival.
The Tweed Coast local, who said his heritage as a member of the Bundjalung and South Sea Islander community set him on track to become a storyteller and entertainer, can list in his CV jobs that include professional surfer, songwriter, rock’n’roll band member and now author of kids’ books.
But his real bread-and-butter job is taking his oneman Circular Rhythm show on the road, presenting indigenous Australian culture through performances featuring guitar, stomp box and didgeridoo to school audiences across Australia. He has been doing it for six years.
“Kids are brutally honest,” he said.
Young faces betray what they are really thinking and if he sees maybe five in an audience of 200 losing interest, he knows he has to change tack.
“You can lose them quickly,” he said. “It happens if you give them information overload. They don’t want to hear talking, they want to see action or interaction. That’s what I’ve learnt.”
Proudfoot, who lives at Robina with his wife Jennifer and 15-month-old daughter Ineke, said his heritage and experiences influenced his shows and were major components in a five-book series he is writing for children aged seven to 10.
The first book, The Proud Foots – Shaka Shaka Hawaii, will be launched at the festival, which runs from March 15-17.
“It’s loosely based on where I grew up,” he said.
The book characters calling themselves the Proud Foots are a trio of friends growing up in a fictional town called Foot Stomp Creek, similar to small towns in the Northern Rivers.
The friends find a magic globe out the back of an uncle’s antique and junk shop. They realise it can transport them anywhere in the world. The first adventure takes them to Hawaii.
“I’m writing purely from experience. I’ve been to over 30 countries and that age group are learning a lot about the world,” Proudfoot said.
“There’s a message of young ones respecting their elders and knowing there is wisdom there. That’s ingrained in everyone’s culture but it’s very prominent in Aboriginal culture.”
Storytelling was always going to be in his blood.
His parents, David and Sue, are retired school teachers “on a comeback”, taking on part-time work. His father is a singer and guitarist, and his mother – who represented Australia in veterans’ hockey – is a storyteller.
“She grew up in a very big family,” he said.
“My (grandmother) Nan’s was a central place down at Chinderah, where we always met up.
“It was full of stories, laughing, barbecues. We grew up around the ocean and that’s where a lot of the inspiration has come from.
“I had three things I was good at. I learnt cultural dancing from a very young age that gave me a footing (in business now),” he said.
“I was always surfing and when I left high school I surfed professionally.”
Proudfoot rose to be ranked ninth in the world in longboarding.
“And while doing that I was also playing in a band (Tweed outfit Max Judo) at a working level. That went on for 10 years.
“All that gave me an opportunity to see the world, learn about a lot of different cultures, interact with a lot of different people and fast-forward to where I am now – that’s where Circular Rhythm was born.”
Kids are brutally honest ... They don’t want to hear talking, they want to see action or interaction LUCAS PROUDFOOT