TWO REVIEWS:
Who Wants to be a Wilionaire? by Wil Anderson at Victoria Hotel until April 23, 2000
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
How many more plays on Wil Anderson's name are still to
come? Lost in the Wil-derness; Ready, Wil-ing and Able; Wil-come to my
Nightmare. This could be interminable.
Fortunately, he is funny as well as being committed to
idiotic puns on his name. Wil lopes on stage wearing a pin-striped jacket and a
deceptive grin covering his cynical soul. He wears trousers too.
The material is less acerbic and political than the previous
show, Terra Wilius. (pun!) He shoots barbed arrows at Eddie Maguire, who is,
admittedly, an easy target, then slams the TV show, Pop Stars.
He gets mileage out of audience members' jobs. He improvised
around a woman who was weary of being an air traffic controller, a young table
tennis coach. Even this writer for the Herald-Sun was fair game. Foolish man,
Wil!
He cleverly reincorporates gags and is hilarious when
improvising on a casual audience remark. He takes a leap into interesting and
more challenging areas (a novelty with most stand-up comics) when he questions
the rationality of a GST on tampons or the political correctness of the Windsor
Smith shoe poster.
With such a smart comedian, there is plenty more scope for
this area to be developed.
Wil Anderson is charming but somehow he seems hampered by
his very charm. If he stopped wanting to be cute and lovable, (No offence Wil)
he could be a biting social commentator. Let's hope his breakfast radio gig
does not make him just like all the other comics.
No comments:
Post a Comment