We were delighted to reconnect with Old Collegian Joe Baxter (SPC 2006-11) recently and hear he is working for laughs as a full-time comedian these days!
Where has life taken you since leaving SPC?
I’m a comedian now, but when I was starting out, I actually returned to St Pat’s as a substitute teacher to pay the bills. Apologies to any parents of students I taught, because I mostly spent classes telling jokes to the boys. I then left teaching to take a chance on comedy, and my first gig was doing breakfast radio up in Bundaberg, Queensland. But I just got sick of perfect weather so I moved back home to Ballarat, to do stand-up full-time. To this day I could be doing a gig in Brunswick, and people from the audience will call out “Hey! Mr Baxter!” It’s cool catching up with former students after gigs and seeing what they’re up to. Especially because teaching’s like being a paramedic or prison guard: you do your job and then usually never hear from that person again.
Do you have family ties with SPC?
Sure do, my dad Kieran Baxter taught here for 20-plus years. So if anyone remembers a history teacher named Mr Baxter who actually did teach them, that’s Dad. As a kid growing up, I can’t tell you how many grown men in every store he went into would still refer to him as “Mr Baxter”.
What are your fondest memories of your time at St Patrick’s College?
Honestly there are so many, I loved being a student here (I feel like I’m doing an ad now).
One thing I will say is that the teachers were very supportive. I was always filming little sketches with my mates, and the deputy walked in on us watching one. When he saw it was us lip-syncing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, he played it at the school assembly. The teachers would always go with stuff like that, it was great. When my mate and I hosted St Pat’s Has Talent, we said to Mr Fisher (in the AV department), “Hey when you’re judging can you just say “thoroughly enjoyed it” every five seconds? And he just did it. Amazing.
On our last day of Year 12, one of the boys got up and read a poem he’d written about us all going our separate ways. That same deputy afterwards said how nice it was to see the support in the room as it was read out. You don’t think about it while you’re there because you’re a kid, but it’s a pretty special time really.
Which teacher from your time at SPC had the greatest impact on you? Why?
Well Dad did teach me in Year 12 (yes it is weird putting your hand up and saying “Dad!”), so we’ll take that one as a given. Aside from Dad, two stand out. The first is a man who is infinitely funnier than I’ll ever be, Mr Geoff Brodie. He and Dad were both funny guys at a time when I was starting to find the world funny. Geoff would just walk into a classroom, do a duck noise, and never explain it. It was honestly like being taught by John Cleese, it was amazing. Our homeroom with him had its own theme song, complete with actions, that we’d lean out the windows and sing to passing classes. He also gave us the best definition for love I’ve ever heard: 1+1=1. He knows his stuff.
The second would be the great man himself, Mr Howard Clark. It’s honestly hard to explain the impact he’s had. He’s one of those people who just leads through his example and presence, makes you want to be the best version of yourself. When I was a teenager and he’d enter the classroom I felt like my posture instantly improved. Even these days when I see him, he still has that effect.
How has your education shaped your professional life?
As a student, it was a time when I was around funny people and collecting funny stories. And whenever my mates and I would ask to film a sketch in the drama room after school, the teachers just let us go for it. All that stuff adds up.
How has your time at SPC shaped your personal values and your family life?
Well I’m marrying into a footy-mad family, so it does help from time to time to say “I went to school with him”. The school was also doing a lot of great social justice work when I was there, which definitely had an impact on me today. I’m not going to go on record and say I’m better than Mother Teresa, but if you say it, I won’t disagree.
If you could pass on one message to the students of today, what would it be?
Take your headphones out. Honestly though, we all go out into the world after school and find our place in it, sometimes with new friends, sometimes old. But for me, my best mates to this day are still the mates I made at St Pat’s. Just last month a went to a wedding for a schoolmate, and some of the boys there I hadn’t seen for like 10 years, but I might as well have been 17 again.
