1960s In the 1960s, Pinder worked behind the scenes in at least two productions in
Dunedin, New Zealand by the Dunedin Repertory Society:
Breath of Spring (1963) and
Harold Pinter's
The Caretaker (1965). After doing some set design and backstage work with various productions in several towns in New Zealand, Pinder "drifted into" journalism and theatre reviewing. By the late 1960s Pinder got into
promoting rock concerts. promoted
T. F. Much Ballroom (and its successors the Much More Ballroom and Stoned Again) as a live venue. The venue was actually the Cathedral Hall or Central Hall in
Fitzroy, allocated the Ballroom names when hired out as a music venue. It became was Melbourne's leading event arts and music venues of the early 1970s, with events usually held monthly. The events included multiple musical acts, with stand-up comedy, poetry readings, theatrical, dance, and novelty performances in between. Circus Oz was co-founded by Pinder, the result of a collaboration between
Adelaide group New Circus and Melbourne's Soapbox Circus. At this time, Pinder was putting a lot of effort into the production of the shows (around 12–15 a year), which had increasing amounts of comedy in them, as well as working for radio stations. He also put on large-scale shows at the
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, including
Billy Thorpe, who attracted an audience of around 200,000. He sold The Flying Trapeze after around two and a half years. They formed a company called John Pinder and Roger Evans Ltd, and Evans ran his own restaurant in Sydney. Pinder said that Evans was much better at looking after the money side of things, but they were both involved in choosing acts to produce. Pinder had seen the original show as a one-hour performance with a tiny cast showing at
The Pram Factory, and invited them to The Last Laugh, where they expanded and reworked the production. where he developed a series of festival venues, including The Starfish Club for the
Adelaide Fringe Festival, where
Stomp and the
Tokyo Shock Boys had their Australian debut. The 1990s also saw Pinder move into television, initially as a consultant on
Steve Vizard's
Tonight Live, In 2001, Robert Love, director of the
Riverside Theatres Parramatta, asked Pinder to create a comedy festival around the Riverside Theatres hub. It became the Big Laugh Comedy Festival, and it ran until 2007. As festival director, Pinder was responsible for bringing
The Goodies to Australia for a sell-out tour as part of the 2005 festival. He also co-produced the first live shows of The 3rd Degree, the comedy troupe which went on to become television sketch show
The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. In 2003, he was running the Big Laugh in
Parramatta, in outer Sydney. ==Personal life==