Do you remember finishing your last Year 12 exam and wondering what to do next? Do you remember waiting for your results and being stuck in limbo? Do you remember going to gigs, forming a band, getting bottles thrown at you by skinheads, making a bomb and getting arrested? Do you remember hitchhiking to Mildura to see the love of your life, but ending up in a caravan park by yourself on New Year's Eve?
You don't? What? Did all this only happen to Dave O'Neil?
That's what this book is about - the summer in which Dave finished school and waited ten weeks to find out whether he'd make it into uni or have to get that trade his dad kept banging on about. The Summer of '82 is the hilarious and heartfelt story of a boy becoming a man in suburban Australia.
Dave O'Neil has been in the business of comedy for over 20 years and is one of Australia's most recognisable stand-up comics, having performed at 15 Melbourne International Comedy Festivals and at dozens of comedy clubs and festivals nationally.
On screen you will have seen Dave messing about on Adam Hills' show In Gordon Street Tonight and Good News Week. He is probably most well known for the honour of being the guest with the most appearances (over 50) on ABC TV's ever popular Spicks & Specks. Dave will continue to be seen on our TV screens and on radio in 2015. As well as his stand up and television career, Dave is a skilled radio broadcaster, and has been a part of successful teams on Nova 100 (with Kate Langbroek and Dave Hughes), Vega 91.5/Classic Rock FM (with Sean Micallef, Denise Scott, Chrissie Swan and Ian 'Dicko' Dickson), and most recently on 774 ABC Radio in Melbourne and last December hosted national summer afternoons for ABC. He writes a fortnightly column for the Age, has written and acted in films (including starring alongside Eric Bana in 'The Nugget'), and contributed to numerous sketch comedy shows. Dave's observational humour, relatable nostalgia, affection for Australian suburbia and genuine humility has seen him become one of our most enduring and loved comic figures. "