General News
20 March, 2025
Character development
THE mind behind a cult classic character is the latest artist in residence to seek creative refuge in Terang ahead of an upcoming debut performance.
Musician and comedian Stephen Teakle is the brainchild of Barry Morgan, an enthusiastic organ salesman at Barry Morgan’s World of Organs.
Mr Teakle burst on to the scene following his character’s 2010 debut on hit ABC television show Spicks and Specks, after he was discovered by renowned comedian and show host Adam Hills.
After fifteen years of relentless touring, Mr Teakle now finds himself in Terang seeking inspiration to bring a new twist to a character which has lurked just out of sight of the spotlight on Barry Morgan.
Mr Teakle said taking time to decompress in Terang and create new material was a natural fit for him.
He’s staged a number of performances in town previously and, as a farm born-and-bred product, has a natural attraction to the country.
“I love performing in the country and feel I have a good rapport with people because a lot of performers don’t come to these places,” Mr Teakle said.
The character he’s currenting developing material for, Stretch, an auxiliary character who has served as Barry Morgan’s roadie, draws far more from the lived experience Mr Teakle’s has had in life.
“Stretch is closer to me, Stephen, because Stretch is more like me,” he said.
“It’s been enjoyable, rewarding and quite therapeutic to work on this material.
“At the same time, having the guts to embody other characters in these stories has been fun because it’s closer to me – I don’t have to work so hard to be him.”
The show Mr Teakle is developing for Stretch, Plan B, will debut in Terang on Sunday, April 6 at The Commercial Hotel.
The show centres around finding comfort in the uncomfortable to ensure dreams and aspirations aren’t lost to the complacency found in the stability of the safer option.
“The show is about how I realised early on that my Plan A was to play music and perform, but it’s very limited in Australia with big distances to cover,” he said.
“You have to have a plan B, but I worked out I wanted my plan B to be terrible because if it was too luxurious it would just take over from Plan A.
“I didn’t want to find myself a professor at a university – anything too uncomfortable is something you can only last a few months in.”
In many ways a victim of his own creation, Mr Teakle has struggled to find time to flesh out his Stretch character as the bombastic, larger-than-life Barry Morgan continues to strike a chord with audiences.
But before departing Terang for a return to the United Kingdom with a run of 30 shows lined up with Barry Morgan, Mr Teakle wants to finally give Stretch his moment in the spotlight.
“I’ve got to always try and nudge it in there because Barry keeps me so busy,” he said.
“(Stretch) took a backseat for a long time, but now we’re about to take Barry over to the United Kingdom and we think we’ll have success.
“Last year we were over there and they loved the gregarious Australian organ salesman and that kind of Aussie swagger.
“It can take its toll with a 10,000-watt smile and an amplifier on 11 but, before we go gangbusters over there, I wanted to have a crack at Stretch.”
Mr Teakle acknowledged he had his anxieties when it came to delivering a new character in a stripped-down performance, but the glimpses of Stretch, revealed in previous shows auxiliary to Barry Morgan, have given him reason to believe his optimism has not been misplaced.
“I’m a bit nervous because I’ve only delivered this material with a pretty crack band based in Melbourne,” he said.
“Sometimes that’s a six or four piece, so it’s a lot of power behind you, but we’ll see.
“We’ve been testing out the Stretch materials in the Barry shows – we just did one at The Gov, a big rock pub in Adelaide, and there were moments there I realised I was playing accordion solo on stage in front of 250 people.
“I’m thinking it’s great that it’s working, but it’s pushing me beyond my limits to make it work while being more meaningful about life and its ups and downs.”
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