City Diggers, Wollongong

November 8

Rod Gregory’s grandfather was a farmer. Rod Gregory’s father was a farmer. For more than 50 years, Rod Gregory was a farmer. But when he steps on stage, removes his Akubra hat and hangs it on the microphone stand, he isn’t Rod Gregory, farmer, any more. 

He becomes The Old Fella.

Rod is 67 years old, and has lived most of his life - until several years ago - on a farm in Maitland, on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.

A fourth generation farmer, married to Toni, another fourth generation farmer and his wife of 48 years, Rod's life has been spent on the land.

Variously a wheat farmer, cattle farmer and wine grower, he said his skills as a shearer and fisherman also kept food on the table during dry and hard years on the land.

But it was the very thing which ended that part of his life, a series of back injuries and operations which forced him off the farm, which brought about his most recent, and most prominent, job title - stand-up comedian.

"If you told me four years ago I'd be up on stage, I'd be amazed. I am amazed now," he said.

His voice down the phone is the archetype of a true blue Aussie farmer - rough and no nonsense, no flowery verbs and straight to the point, but with a warmth and a kindness that seeps through even from 1500 kilometres away.

"I didn't even know I had the ability to do it. I'm extremely lucky to find something like this in my retirement."

Again, in true farmer fashion, he's modest.

While you might not know the name, you'd probably recognise his face - and the dirty jokes.

After being told by doctors that his surgery would stop him from doing any strenuous activity, Rod said he "floundered" for weeks. After 50-plus years farming, he was at a loss.

On a whim, he enrolled in a short comedy writing course.

One thing led to another, which led to the doorstep of Australia's Got Talent in 2011. Showing up with an Akubra hat, a few minutes of dirty jokes collected over his years on the land, and a slightly exaggerated character called The Old Fella, Rod blew judges away and eventually came fourth in the national final.

That wasn't the plan.

"I was hoping to get two minutes on national TV for some cheap advertising for myself as a little comedian," Rod confessed.

"Most comedians work for years before anyone even knows them. I realised I didn't have years.

"I just wanted a few minutes on TV to hopefully get some more gigs."

That final objective has certainly been reached. Armed with a swathe of jokes about Viagra, a wife lovingly nicknamed 'Turtle' - "flip her on her back and her legs fall open" - and life on the land, Rod becomes The Old Fella whenever he steps on stages around the country.

Approaching 70 years of age, a time when most are settling down for their twilight years of bingo halls and bowls club meetings and quiet fishing trips, Rod is travelling the country with wife Toni on a schedule that has him booked into four performances a week until April.

But he says he isn't even the funniest guy he knows, let alone the "funniest farmer in Australia" as the rave reviews that follow him invariably attest.

"It's that good old Australiana bush humour. Things we see every day of our lives in the bush, jokes we share during lunch and dinner breaks when we're working," he said.

"The jokes were funny a hundred years ago, they'll still be funny in a hundred years from now. That humour is still very strong in the bush.

"Most of the guys never had the opportunity to be on stage like me, but they all have that wicked sense of humour.

"When farm people come up and talk to me after a show, it's great. We speak the same language. We see it in each other's eyes."

Life in the country permeates every part of his performance, down to what he does before he even utters his first word on stage (which, often, is simply "Viagra").

Coming on wearing his wide-brimmed hat, he takes it off as he reaches centre-stage, hanging it off the microphone stand.

It isn't just for show, he says - it's good manners.

"I don't swear on stage, I don't insult anyone. Even down to the hat, I take it off as a mark of respect for the women in the audience," he said.

"We would do that on the street, tilt our hat to a woman walking past. I want to give that sense of Australiana back in my performances, to let city folk know about our life in the country and what we do."

It certainly has been a whirlwind ride for Rod.

He and his wife spend much of their time travelling the country, going to places "you would never go as tourists, places you don't even know exist, and we get treated like kings and queens by the people there".

The Old Fella pulls into Wollongong next month, playing the City Diggers club on November 8. While most of his performances are in the bush and drawing on experiences of farming and rural life, "city folk" in Wollongong can still take something away from the show - because he certainly will take something away from us.

"It's been incredible, and really expanded my whole outlook on life. I could talk to any farmer on any topic about farming, but now I'm talking to artists and people in big towns and meeting some great people all over the country," he said.

"It's been an incredible experience for an old farmer.

"There is nothing better than making someone laugh. That's the real reward, people thanking you for making them laugh.

"Little old ladies come up and say I made them wet their pants.

"I've never felt more alive than when I'm on stage."