Paul Livingston

He was joint winner of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in 1996 for outstanding achievement in the performing arts in Australia. Livingston also wrote the play Emma's Nose about the relationship of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Fliess and their patient Emma Eckstein. Livingston also starred in The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey by Vincent Ward. Livingston has toured Australia and internationally and appeared at festivals in Edinburgh and Montreal. In 2014, he replaced Richard Fidler as the guitarist in the reformed Doug Anthony All Stars, and toured with Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott.

• Name — Paul Livingston • Birth Name — Paul James Livingston • Born — 1956 • Birthplace — Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Television — * The Sideshow • The Sandman • Flacco Special • The Big Gig • Occupation — * Comedian • author

• Illustration — Paul Livingston in character as Flacco Flacco is a fictional character played by Paul Livingston. Livingston created the character in 1985, when he got up on stage as part of a bet, and the audience mistook his nervousness for a comedic character. Flacco's trademark curl of hair on a pale bald head was originally Livingston's actual hair, until actual baldness forced him to use hairpieces. In 2009, a portrait by Paul Jackson of Livingston in character as Flacco won the Packing Room Prize as part of the Archibald Prize. Flacco was an outsider whose observations of people took on an almost alien quality. He had a completely bald head with a single stylised (thick) strand of hair in a coil, and was frequently seen in a suit. He made quick observations often interspersed with incorrect movie, theatre or cultural quotes.

• Illustration — Flacco (right) with The Sandman (Steve Abbott) Flacco first appeared on television in 1988 on Andrew Denton's Blah Blah Blah and came to prominence the following year on The Big Gig, as an alien who engaged in observational humour. He reprised the role, also as an alien in DAAS Kapital, a sitcom featuring fellow Big Gig alumni the Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS). His appearances on Good News Week paired him with the Sandman (played by Steve Abbott), and the two characters appeared together frequently live and on television. In 2007, Flacco made regular appearances on the ABC1 show The Sideshow alongside Abbott and Paul McDermott, with Gordon Farrer of The Sydney Morning Herald calling the show a "living link to an earlier era of Australian culture", due to the presence of Flacco, the Sandman and former DAAS member McDermott as comedians of the 1990s. A holographic video display featuring Flacco sat at the Black Mountain Tower in Canberra during the 1990s in their now-removed "Making Connections" exhibition.