Canberra's Magnet Mart Man is looking ahead

He can now add author and, most importantly, dad, to his list of achievements which also include actor, screenwriter, producer ... and financial advisor.

After eight years living in London, Sloane returned to his hometown of Canberra two years ago with wife Lucinda Watson and their now four-year-old son Roman.

The couple met at a 007 party in Canberra. Lucinda was born in England so the pair eventually decided to sell everything they owned and head for London to have an adventure.

Originally from Kaleen and a former Daramalan College and University of Canberra student, Sloane, 44, became the advertising front man for the Magnet Mart hardware chain nearly 20 years go. Wow.

But he also had a working career in financial consulting and that's what he found himself doing in London, for big organisations such as the National Health Service. As well as touring around Europe with Lucinda.

"It was pretty addictive," he said.

He'd also been enticed overseas to further distribution deals for The Dinner Party, the movie he made in 2009, loosely based on the death in 1997 of Joe Cinque in Canberra at the hands of Anu Singh.

London turned out to a circuit breaker.

"It took me five years to make that film and five years to get over it," he said.

"And than I promised myself I wouldn't do anything creatively until it organically came out. I knew it would one day because I've always had that in me."

The result was A Bodacious Guide to the London Underground, a comedic book that came from him commuting in London for eight years.

The book was published by Pegasus in the UK and can be ordered on Amazon.

It was a return to fun for Sloane who said he was inspired by Russell Brand and Spike Milligan in his writing as he catalogues the characters of the underground, all with an appreciation for the absurd.

There is everyone from the Underground Zombies (always looking at their phone or "digital brain drainer" ) to The Un-Cleansed ("smells like something between a wet dog and salty cheddar tsunami") and The Snail aka slow walker ("I have watched people and often thought, 'I wonder if they have to pack up and head home after arriving at work?'.") and The Pole Hugger ("These people hug poles like I would imagine a pirate hugs the mast of their ship in the middle of a storm, except it is more of a squall in the Underground".)

"These are things you see every day. You just go, 'Wow'," Sloane said, with a laugh on Wednesday, as he posed in the Woden drains, close enough to the grottiness of the underground.

Sloane said he and Lucinda returned to Canberra because work was drying up in the wake of Brexit but also because they'd had Roman.

They still have a house in north London and might return one day.

But, for now, Sloane is living in Curtin with his family, working as a financial consultant with local firm Chartertech and enjoying a truly transformed Canberra.

"I think it's changed more in the last 10 years [than in] the previous 30. There's a whole new world to discover," he said.

"The first couple of nights I got back from London I just went into my backyard and lay on the grass and stared at the stars."

He's also filming an ad every couple of months for Hip Pocket Workwear and Safety Canberra, owned by the son of Paul Donaghue, who founded Magnet Mart.

Sloane was only 25 when he auditioned for Magnet Mart, nailed the audition and filmed his first ad the same day.

The character provided him with a second income for years as he estimates he filmed 300 ads for the hardware chain. He had a natural inkling to travel but didn't take that leap until later in life.

"It was the Magnet Mart gig that kept me here. I thought, 'I can't give this up'. After a couple of years it was evident it was just exploding. And I thought, 'This is going to be one hell of a ride in life'."

And Magnet Mart Man is arguably the most memorable character in Canberra advertising history.

"What's remarkable about the Magnet Mart thing is that I was doing plays and I was doing the finance stuff and I thought, 'I'm sick of doing auditions and I need to focus on one thing' and I'd decided I didn't want to do that stuff anymore, maybe a play every now and then to keep me happy," he recalled.

"It was a weekend and I shaved my head for the first time ever, I think I was dared at a party. And Monday morning my agent calls and says, 'I got an audition' and I was like, 'I shaved my head' and she went, 'You did what?!'"

Needless to say, he went to the audition for Magnet Mart, with bald head, and sunnies on his head.

"I used to do a lot of running and triathlons and had these flash red Oakleys I'd bought in Queensland," he said, with a laugh.

Magnet Mart loved him and a partnership was formed that would last for years, the sunnies and bald head and suit becoming his calling card. And it provided just one chapter in the unfolding story of Brendan Sloane.

"You get a lot of thinking time in a pandemic and I've had time to reflect and think, 'Wow, I've had a really amazing life'," he said, serious for a moment.

"... And I'm still searching for myself," he adds, dissolving into laughter.