When the end came for comedy duo Scared Weird Little Guys, Yarraville’s Rusty Berther decided he needed to have a big life experience.
“So, obviously, I went to Antarctica and ran a marathon and then I wrote a book about it,” he said. Berther last Thursday helped launch the Williamstown Literary Festival program, which will feature more than 80 authors at 50 events during the weekend of May 31-June 1.
He’s now on the circuit talking about memoir-writing and his first book titled
Scared Weird Frozen Guy.
Berther’s first book “went quite well” so his publisher asked if he had any other ideas.
“I sort of was flying by the seat of my pants,” he says. “So I said, ‘What about a book about shit gig stories, disastrous showbiz stories?’”
That formed the basis of his second title,
What, and give up Showbiz?
From 11.30am on May 31, at Williamstown Town Hall, Berther will be joined by John Harms, Greg Fleet and Sam Bramham to discuss the process of writing memoirs.
“I feel very honoured to have my books described as literature now and I guess, officially, they are,” Berther says. “I’m definitely a bona fide author.”
Festival highlights will include:
■ Clare Wright, winner of the Stella Prize for her book on Eureka’s women titled The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.
■ Eva Cox, Samantha Trenoweth, Helen Razer and Shakira Hussein discussing ‘Bewitched and Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard Years’, an analysis of Australia’s reaction to the nation’s first female prime minister
■ Shaun Micallef discussing his new book, The President’s Desk, with actor Francis Greenslade
■ Bernard Salt discussing Decent Obsessions – Why it’s okay to sweat the small stuff,.
For the full program, visit willylitfest.org.au or phone 9932 4074.
Goya Dmytryshchak
