BARLEY a week goes by in Australia when a Rugby League or Aussie Rules player doesn’t offend good minded people by uttering racist insults, or is accused of rape. So hiring a former AFL player to perform a ‘comedy’ show at a primary school was never going to gain Wiggles-style parent approval.
And so it was that former Carlton star Glenn Manton’s performance – in front of a mostly adult crowd – at the opening of a gymnasium at Penbank School, Moorooduc, has been labelled “crass, misogynist and full of sexual innuendo”. Oo matron!
Manton’s performance as ‘Coach’, his comedy creation, had all the subtlety of Harold Shipman administering pain killers in an old people’s home for the rich and famous.
Parent Lucy Burns, who saw the show, claims Manton at one point shouted “I hate fucking kids”, asked a talented golfer in her late teens whether she would be wearing lingerie while competing, and even told a male ballet dancer in his early teens that he had positioned himself well by standing closely behind a female dancer.
“It was the sort of thing that might have been funny if it was at the local footy club with the players, but not in that context,” said Burns.
Manton countered by saying: “Comedy does not always hit the mark with everyone in the room.”
