Young Einstein

Yahoo Serious (born Greg Pead) became one of Australia’s most successful independent conceptual artists and filmmakers of the 1980s and 1990s. Considered the first Australian to write, produce, direct and star in a major motion picture, he legally changing his name to “Yahoo Serious” in 1980 before his sudden fame. He grew up near Newcastle, Australia and worked as a tire fitter for a time to get through art school, but was eventually expelled from the school. Soon after he started combining his artistic talents with absurdist comedy and earned a lot of skeptical looks along the way. At age 21, Yahoo wrote, produced, directed and filmed Coaltown, a documentary tracing the socio-political history of coalmining. The following year he won the National Award for Best Australian Educational Documentary for his TV series “Lifestyle.” After extensive traveling throughout Asia, Europe and America, he began writing, directing and performing in experimental comedy. This led to spectacular success with his first weird, skimpily-budgeted vehicle Young Einstein (1988), the story of a young Tasmanian farmer who discovers rock music along with the theory of relativity. Blending political/social satire, silliness and slapstick with eye-popping visuals, he hit the jackpot with young audiences. Grossing over $100 million, he instantly branched out internationally, hitting all the popular talk shows and even making the cover of TIME magazine (February, 1989). Audiences took a fascination to his unique cinematic style. True to form, Serious involved himself in practically every detail of the making of the movie, from creating the original concept and script through incorporating the visual design and music soundtrack and performing all his own stunts. However, following this crazy rollercoaster ride, he was not able to produce a follow up movie soon enough and quickly became yesterday’s news. Coming out five years later, Reckless Kelly (1993), the story of a Robin Hood-like, motorcycle-riding robber who becomes a Hollywood movie star, matched his first film in unconventional silliness but not popularity and disappeared quickly. His third movie, Mr. Accident (1999), about the most accident-prone man in the world, also was a commercial disaster while still finding a cult following. He is currently at work on a war drama that he has been shooting for a number of years. —IMDb