ZIG AND ZAG

ZIG AND ZAG - PETER'S FUN FAIR

A CHANCE MEETING OF ONE ON MY CHILDHOOD ENTERTAINMENT ICONS

ZIG AND ZAG IN FOOTSCRAY 1971

ZIG AND ZAG IN MELBOURNE 1999

One day I met Doug MacKenzie, former HSV7 chldren's show producer, and one half of the iconic television clowns, Zig and Zag. He spoke to me about how he produced the Happy Show and meeting his wife the co-producer. He spoke about the making of Zig and Zag;s Peter's Fun Fair. Both Doug MacKenzie (Zag) and Jack Perry (Zig) have since passed away. The photograph above features (Sparkles the clown) Carol Perry Bowen, Jack Perry's daughter, and David Doughty playing Santa.

Roy Lyons acted as Cousin Roy for 14 years on the Zig and Zag Peters Fun Fair show.

Zig and Zag's car in the Melbourne Moomba Parade, in the late 1960's.

Melbourne television clowns Zig and Zag's car in the Melbourne Moomba Parade, in the late 1960's.

Television clown, Zag (Doug MacKenzie) with Zig and Zag's car in the Melbourne Moomba Parade, in the late 1960's.

Zig And Zag Moomba Parade 1950s

Zig And Zag in the Mooba Parade 1950s

Melbourne television clown, Zig (Jack Perry), half of the clown team Zig and Zag, in the Melbourne Moomba Parade in the late 1960's.

Melbourne television clowns, Zig and Zag - Moomba Parade

ZIG AND ZAG

Zig and Zag were the clown duo of Jack Perry and Doug McKenzie and began performing together in the 1950s in Melbourne. Before 1939, McKenzie was a junior announcer on radio station 3XY. By 1952, he was voicing advertisements dressed as a clown with a young Bert Newton. This led to Zig and Zag regularly appearing on a Saturday morning children's show with Frank Thring. Clown duo Zig and Zag were stars of one of HSV 7’s longest running television show Peter’s Fun Fair. Starting in 1956 and enjoying a showlife of 15 years together, Zig and Zag were Jack Perry and Doug McKenzie. Possibly one of Australian television’s most important icons, Zig and Zag dressed in costumes advertising Peters Ice Cream (“the health food of a nation”). They were known for using catchphrases such as “No-o-o trouble!”. In 2002, McKenzie was the inaugural recipient of ‘Variety's Heart of Show Business Award’. Doug Christie, chairman of Variety, the children's charity, said Mr McKenzie was awarded for his long service to Melbourne's entertainment industry and his commitment to children's charity.

CARYL PERRY BOWEN - DAUGHTER OF JACK PERRY - ZIG OF THE TELEVISION CLOWNS, ZIG AND ZAG

Caryl Perry Bowen 14/02/2014 .
My father, Jack was a professional entertainer from age 16-17ish with comedy for adult audiences. He also played slap base, ukulele and piano. He was also a tool maker with Sutton Tool & Gauge. He was classified for 'essential services' in WW2, so spent 6 days a week at Suttons and 7 nights a week entertaining at different venues around Melbourne. The Dug Out in St Kilda was one name I can remember. After the war, he had to decide whether to stick to his day job or become a full time entertainer. You know the answer to that one. In 1956 he was 'talked into' becoming a children's entertainer and became Zig of Zig & Zag in Peter's Fun Fair on HSV7. I made my first public appearance at age 3, standing on top of a piano singing "Daddy's Little Girl" at one of (my father) Jack's gigs, my first radio show aged 9 (with Jack), my first TV appearance aged 12, my first live theatre show at age 15 for a year, six nights a week and a Saturday matinee, and I was the stage manager for the last 6 months that I was there....And I started clowning at age 15 too. Over the years I have been sponsored by 'Peter's Ice Cream', contracted by 'CIG' & 'Victorian Tourist Authority', supplied by 'Johnson & Johnson', was officially "Sparkles the Moomba Clown" and did a 2 week city promo leading up to the parade every year and led the parade, until the Moomba Clown Club started and I lost my title! Boo hoo. I did the Good Friday appeal for Royal Children's Hospital for years and many other charity events. I have done magazine ads, radio & TV commercials, shows, spruiking, comparing and various promotions as Sparkles, Easter Bunny, Witch Hazel, Fairy Floss and other characters at shopping centres, schools, kinders, child care centres, fairs, fetes, parades, BBQ's, fund raisers, birthday parties, blah, blah. I use comedy, magic, balloon art, face painting, play a ukulele and have a 3 wheeler bike for parades and whatever!!
That's enough!
Cheers
Caryl xx

EARLY AUSTRALIAN PERFORMER - JACK PERRY

DOUG MCKENZIE AS A SOLDIER IN WORLD WAR TWO

Doug McKenzie was a prisoner of war in Changi during WW2
Doug McKenzie's coffin was draped with a tiger skin, representing Richmond Football Club, two of his hats and his medals. Zag, the clown, saved hundreds of lives just by making fellow prisoners laugh, according to a former Changi prisoner of war quoted at the funeral service for Doug McKenzie in Melbourne. As Zag, McKenzie was half of the Zig and Zag duo that entertained Melbourne for decades on Channel Seven, at Moomba and during the Good Friday Royal Children's Hospital appeal. He died in Melbourne aged 87. McKenzie's stepson, Michael Wetzler, speaking at the funeral service, recalled prisoner of war stories from Changi veterans. They had survived because they had found ways to have fun, former prisoners had said. McKenzie had started a Melbourne Cup race in Changi after persuading the Japanese guards that the first Tuesday in November was a religious holiday. The prisoners raced frogs they collected from the swamps. Doug Christie, president of children's charity Variety, described the long-running Peters Fun Fair television shows, starring Zig and Zag, as "shameless, simple, make-believe fun". Mr Christie said he had watched a little girl jumping around in her cot, squealing with laughter at the clowns' slapstick antics at an impromptu concert at the Royal Children's Hospital. Just a week later, she was dead.

The Richmond Football Club theme song played as McKenzie's coffin, draped with a tiger skin, left the funeral parlour. Two of the hats he wore - the soldier's slouch hat and the Peters ice-cream bucket - followed, carried by a family member.

Doug McKenzie (Zag) (22 March 1917 – 4 August 2004) had been a prisoner of war at Changi in World War 2. As a corporal, McKenzie, and another prisoner, Bill West, annually ran a mock version of the Melbourne Cup in the prison by using bull frogs. In 1942 his frog, Greenbottle, won the mock cup trophy: made of cardboard, which McKenzie cherished upon return to Australia in 1945. Whilst appearing on-air as Zag, he also produced many programs for HSV7, including Club 7, Hold Everything and Junior Jamboree. In 2002, McKenzie was the inaugural recipient of Variety's Heart of Show Business Award. Doug Christie, chairman of Variety, the children's charity, said Mr McKenzie was awarded for his long service to Melbourne's entertainment industry and his commitment to children's charity. McKenzie died in August 2004, aged 87

Clown duo Zig and Zag were stars of one of HSV 7’s longest running television show Peter’s Fun Fair. Starting in 1956 and enjoying a showlife of 15 years together, Zig and Zag were Jack Perry and Doug McKenzie. Possibly one of Australian television’s most important icons, Zig and Zag dressed in costumes advertising Peters Ice Cream (“the health food of a nation”). They were known for using catchphrases such as “No-o-o trouble!”

Clowns Zig and Zag, a huge part in the raising of many millions of pounds and dollars for the Royal Children's Hospital appeal.

ZIG AND ZAG

ZIG AND ZAG JACK PERRY AND DOUG MCKENZIE

ZIG AND ZAG

MOOMBA - ZIG AND ZAG

ZIG AND HIS DAUGHTER SPARKLES

ZIG - JACK PERRY

SPARKLES - SANTA - ZIG AND ZAG

STUDFIELD SHOPPING CENTRE KNOX - ZIG AND ZAG

ZAG - SPARKLES AND ZIG

EARLY - CHANNEL 7 MELBOURNE - PUBLICITY CARDS OF ZIG AND ZAG

MAKE A WISH - ZIG AND ZAG AND SANTA WITH SIMON DERMA

SPARKLES (Caryl Perry Bowen) AND SANTA ( David Doughty ) - BUNNINGS VERMONT SOUTH, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA - CHRISTMAS 2010

ZIG AND ZAG

ZIG AND ZAG live in 1971

TELEVISION CLOWNS - ZIG AND ZAG

ZIG

ZIG AND ZAG

ACTOR AND ENTERTAINER - THE LATE JACK PERRY

THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO THE LATE AND GREAT ZIG AND ZAG - R. I. P.

ZIG AND ZAG, ZIG AND ZAG, ZIG AND ZAG

THE FUNNY CLOWNS FROM TELEVISION LAND

ZIG AND ZAG, ZIG AND ZAG, ZIG AND ZAG

THE BOYS AND GIRLS THINK YOU ARE REALLY GRAND

WHEN YOU'RE IN AN AEROPLANE

MAKING CAKES FOR TEA

DRIVING IN A FUNNY CAR

FISHING IN THE SEA

WE DON'T KNOW WHY YOU DO IT FOR

IT'S ALWAYS FUN TO SEE

OUR OLD FRIENDS ZIG AND ZAG

Zig and Zag the television clowns

My brother Kevin and I dressed up as our idols ZIG & ZAG back in the early 1960's.

AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION CLOWNS ZIG AND ZAG MEET MELBOURNE RACE CALLER BILL COLLINS.

CLOWNS ZIG AND ZAG MEET BILL COLLINS

TELEVISION CLOWNS ZIG AND ZAG

CLOWNS ZIG AND ZAG AT THE MELBOURNE MOOMBA PARADE

ZIG AND ZAG THE CLOWNS WITH JOHN DARCY

ZIG AND ZAG THE TELEVISION CLOWNS DECIDE TO RACE

THE ZIG AND ZAG TELEVISION SHOW. MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

ZIG AND ZAG THE TV CLOWNS - ZIG WITH A PIE IN HIS FACE

ZIG AND ZAG THE TELEVISION CLOWNS

TV clown Zag dies
August 5, 2004 - 4:08PM
Melbourne icon Zag, half of comedy clown duo Zig and Zag, died overnight of a suspected heart attack. He was 87-years-old. Doug McKenzie, a pioneer of Australian television and a survivor of the Changi prisoner-of-war camp, was remembered today for his kindness and love of children. He and his long time comedy partner Jack Perry, Zig, were the stars of one of Channel 7's longest-running television shows, Peters Fun Fair, which started in 1956. The duo, dressed as clowns, were also regulars at the Melbourne Moomba Festival and helped raise money for Royal Children's Hospital.Good friend and fellow tv personality Dan Webb said McKenzie was a great performer and a lovely man. "He was a very quiet, loving man, a lovely fellow," Mr Webb said today. He said revelations his comedy partner Zig had been convicted in 1994 of indecently assaulting his granddaughter broke up the partnership. "It upset Doug enormously, it was a terrible disappointment," Mr Webb said.

When the revelations were made public in 1999, the duo were forced to resign from the Moomba Festival where they were to be crowned Kings of Moomba. At the time Zag, a veteran of 44 Moombas, refused to attend alone. "I don't think it would work really because it's always been two of us, Zig and Zag, not Zig, not Zag, just Zig and Zag," he said. It was the end of a long-running partnership.

In 2002, McKenzie was the inaugural recipient of Variety's Heart of Show Business Award. Doug Christie, chairman of Variety, the children's charity, said Mr McKenzie was awarded for his long service to Melbourne's entertainment industry and his commitment to children's charity. "He was a kind, caring entertainer and children really loved him," Mr Christie said. "We will miss him a lot."
- AAP

Clown duo Zig and Zag were stars of one of HSV 7’s longest running television show Peter’s Fun Fair. Starting in 1956 and enjoying a showlife of 15 years together, Zig and Zag were Jack Perry and Doug McKenzie. Possibly one of Australian television’s most important icons, Zig and Zag dressed in costumes advertising Peters Ice Cream (“the health food of a nation”). They were known for using catchphrases such as “No-o-o trouble!”

This page is dedicated to Doug and Jack for all the laughs and wonderful memories you gave to me and thousands of children over many years. I'll always have fond memories of both of them. I was lucky enough to meet Doug on a bus trip to Echuca some years ago, and I had the great honour of speaking to him about his career. It was a night I'll never forget.

zig & zag