Wil Anderson is speaking from the comfort of his home in the
lead-up to his run at the Comedy Store – and the term "comfort" is not used casually.
"I don't mean this in some sort of
this-call-is-going-to-be-charged-at-$4.95-a-minute way, but I'm in my pajamas," he explains. "Unfortunately,
yesterday I had the opposite sort of day to this: I was at the ABC and I had
three suit changes and six hours of photos and smiling in the right direction
and being nice to people."
Review: Wilful Misconduct proves that, after over a decade in the business, Wil Anderson is undoubtedly a polished professional. His segues are smooth, his social commentary is intelligent, his delivery is energetic, and his profanities are not unnecessarily excessive.
With ease and comic perfection, Anderson criticises all things wrong with society: redneck racists; celebrity culture; closed-minded religious folk; bratty kids, and even Sesame Street (apparently the Cookie Monster promotes bulimia). He ties these seemingly unrelated topics together with the theme of “Let them go” – “them” refers to groups that hinder society, such as people with… er, bleached anuses. Despite the wide range of issues that he covers, Anderson also manages to fit in some banter with audience members, including a moment with a 16-year-old boy who will be forever haunted by images of his parents masturbating.
His tirades are convincing and he knows where to draw the line before the audience starts to squirm with awkwardness. Leave the show catching your breath from uncontrollable laughter while silently reflecting the issues that Anderson has cleverly planted in your mind. Emily Cheng
Well, that's the price you pay when you happen to host a
show that's turned into a runaway success like
The Gruen Transfer – and surely there's no small amount of pride
involved in taking one's career to the next level?
"You know what?
I've realised something about myself, which is that for someone who works all
the time, I'm not actually particularly motivated. I'm quite naturally lazy."
Well, that's easy for someone to say when they're doing
stand up tours and a national TV show, but surely...
"No, it's true. A friend of mine said to me ‘oh, you must be
excited that
The Gruen Transfer's
back', and to be perfectly honest with you, we stopped working on it last June so it's been a year since I had to work on it, and in that time I've
realised what I like more than anything.'"
Which would be...?
"I've always thought I liked having a TV show, but I
realised that I like that
second," he
explains. "What I like least is
not having a TV show, and the thing I enjoy the most is having a TV show that I
have to do at some stage, but
not actually
doing that TV show. That is my favourite thing: I don't have to look for a
new job, I can be confident that something is going to happen at some stage,
but I don't have to actually go into the office and do anything about it. I
feel like I'm back on uni holidays: you know how you never got a proper job
during uni holidays? ‘Hey, I'm going to have to go back to uni, so I might as
well drink for three months.' The best thing about being on tour has been that
I didn't have to go to an office."
Surely that's not too onerous, though, talking to people?
"Oh no, no, it's fine… although I do feel like this is the
longest rogue I've gone. I haven't had to have a real, proper job where I've
had to be around real, respectable people where you have to remember how to
talk to them. When you've done stand-up for a while you forget what the normal
boundaries of society are."
Examples, please.
"OK, I had to fill in this insurance form, because when you do
TV shows they take out insurance on you, just in case you're ill and they have
to cancel a recording or whatever; it's a pretty standard thing. And you have
to get a medical, and one of the questions on the form is ‘have you consumed
any illicit drugs in the last five years?' and then it has three lines for you
to name the specific occasions and what the drug was. And I was like ‘three
lines? Are you
kidding? I've been on
comedy tour for eight months – three lines is a quiet night!'" He laughs
uproariously. "If I can remember the nights, clearly I wasn't having enough
fun."
And with that we leave him to contemplate the next
interview, still in his PJs.
"And please don't think it's just because it's ten o'clock
in the morning, because I'm still going to be doing press this afternoon and I'm
still going to be in my pajamas. And I
enjoy that."
Mr Anderson, you are living the dream.
"All you need to do, mate, is tell dick jokes for cash.
Apparently."
Wil Anderson Sydney Comedy Store, every Thu–Sat in Jul
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