Stephen Abbott
AKA The Sandman
Stephen Abbott is an enduring part of the Australian comedy landscape. While performing regularly over the past ten years as the Sandman or ‘Sandy’, Stephen has also found time to become an accomplished live performer, radio presenter, writer, actor and even recently turning his hand to bingo calling and hosting his own television tonight show.
Steve also wrote seven Sandman books, and for the Hunter Valley Theatre Company, the original musical plays The Headbutt and The Coast Mongrel.
In 2004 SBS screened Sandman in Siberia, a documentary Steve co-produced, wrote and appeared in. After two seasons of his SBS variety series, then creating and hosting the ratings success Under the Grandstand – a live-to-air variety show for the 2005 Ashes Cricket series, Steve changed gears to work behind the scenes.
In 2007 Steve teamed up with Castanet buddy Warren Coleman to write a feature screenplay based on Linda Jaivin’s novel The Infernal Optimist, which won the Lorne Film 2015 Screenwriter’s Award, and was runner-up in the 2015 AWG/Adelaide Film Festival’s INSITE awards. That led to them forming a production company Bongo Island. The duo wrote key episodes for Ambience Entertainment’s series Random and Whacky and Drop Dead Weird as well as the 2022 TV series The Barrumbi Kids. They developed the feature The Legend of The Underzoo for Arc Productions Canada, and script-edited PictureWorks Australia’s feature White Flesh for producer Tayyab Madni.
While Steve semi-retired Sandman in 2011 he still finds himself in character on the odd occasion. But these days Steve is mostly busy with Bongo Island. They have a feature film involving Sandman called Dear Evelyn ready to rock – they just need a few bucks. A family live-action feature Stripey (selected for Screen Australia’s Family Film Initiative workshop) that is soon to be activated. Not to mention their collaboration with Hoodoo Gurus mastermind Dave Faulkner on the book of a musical based on They’re A Weird Mob.
Steve still performs live as himself and Sandman and sometimes both at the same time.
“You were the star we thought you’d be! Thankyou!” Dee Read – Aust. Publishers Assc.
