From the moment he bounds onstage, all wiry elasticity and jittery energy with a ribbon a-twirl behind him, Frank Woodley commands the enraptured attention of a packed-in audience. This is likely to be no surprise to anyone even glancingly familiar with the Australian comedy scene. Woodley has been performing – first in Found Objects, which later became the famous Lano & Woodley, and then as a solo act – for over 25 years now; the man is a comedy icon.
And like any good comedy icon, Woodley knows exactly what he’s doing. He may emit a breathy, self-described ‘anxious vibe’, and the whole show may have the intimate, improvisational feel of a rehearsal, but that’s all part of Woodley’s Simon the Likeable-level charm. It takes a skilled performer to make everyone in the room feel like he’s addressing them directly and spontaneously, but this is exactly how it feels as Woodley delivers a series of meandering yet hilarious stories punctuated with perfectly deadpanned punchlines. Covering everything from the anachronism that are steamrollers to being close friends with a horse – he even delves into the realm of magic – this is Woodley is at his sweetly but sharply surreal best.
The middle part of the show, in which he takes up guitar to perform – as he explains it – whimsy as distinct from comedy, is not quite as successful. Perhaps this is because Woodley’s best is hard for anyone, including himself, to beat. Or maybe it’s that the acoustics of the Lower Town Hall, or hopefully just the sound set-up on the night, leave something to be desired. Woodley is clearly a talented musician – sorry, ‘whimsician’ – but the pre-recorded backing track to the first song is both unnecessary and distracting. Subsequent whimsies don’t suffer from quite the same issue, but it’s still a little difficult to hear every word he sings, although admittedly that is the joke to one of them.
Woodley returns to comedy with the final third of the show, assisted partly by two audience members duelling with Nerf guns (you do kind of have to be there). He closes the show with a highly original imagining of how Hitler and his fellow top-tier Nazis – all played by Woodley in a delightful, increasingly absurdist set piece – came up with their salute.
Fool’s Gold may not be an entirely perfect hour, but it felt like a mere ten minutes had elapsed by the time it ended. The whole audience – comprised of clearly satisfied and happy people of all ages – loved it, and with any luck, we’ll get to see Frank Woodley perform as brilliantly for another 25 years yet. Who else, after all, could do such a convincing impression of a horse doing an impression of a meerkat?
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Frank Woodley: Fool’s Gold
Melbourne Town Hall – Lower Town Hall, Swanston St
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
27 March – 22 April
