A belter of a best-of _{by Madelaine Empson}

Aussie larrikin Heath Franklin, aka Chopper, has been churning out cult-classic comedy gold for 20 years. To celebrate, the stage and 7 Days screen ledge has compiled all his funniest bits and hardest hits into one knockout show, GOLD, which he describes as a belter lined wall to wall with solid jokes. “If you want a bit of a laugh and a break from stuff, come check it out” at The Opera House on the 20^th of November.

Over the past 20 years, what do you think has changed about your comedy and the way it’s received?

One of the things I’ve noticed doing this show is that a lot of the writing that I got away with early on just doesn’t stand up anymore or hit anywhere near as hard as the new material. In terms of reception, I’m not going to go too deep into cancel culture, but I think there is – in some parts of Australia at least – a humourlessness now. Everyone has sort of lost the ability to laugh at themselves and not take things seriously. Not that I want to go around punching down or making fun of people who are having a hard time, but there is a general lack of relaxed, ‘Yeah, whatever, that’s funny’. Half the room might be thinking to themselves, ‘Oh, you can’t say that,’ and the other half might go, ‘Oh, everyone’s going to be thinking you can’t say that.’ I think the rise of comedians being really political about everything has made people assume that’s what it is. But I just want to be as silly as possible and tell jokes and not remind people about the misery of day-to-day life at the moment [laughs].

Do people let their guard down more with you because of your stage persona?

I think so, because it all looks so pantomime. I hope that I’ve laid down the groundwork and made it so silly that it shouldn’t and can’t be taken seriously.

Can you sneak in an example of one of the ‘funniest bits’ in GOLD?

An example (of something that got a few rewrites actually) is a sketch I did in The Ronnie Johns Half Hour TV show back in 2005 of Chopper doing people’s horoscopes. As you can imagine, it all goes wrong.

Brilliant. What is the weirdest thing a fan has said to you, and what would be the best thing?

The weirdest and the best thing – and this happens to me in New Zealand a lot – is you meet people after the show who are like, ‘Come back to my place! I’ve got a shed. We can drink beers and smoke bongs.’ That’s very lovely of you, thank you. If I did that every time I was offered, I wouldn’t make it through the year I don’t think. So I will continue to (respectfully) decline all offers to go and party with strangers in their sheds [laughs].