Frank Woodley Gets Meta On His Comedy In His Latest Show, 'I, Woodley'

Frank Woodley manages to cram a lot of ideas into his shows, but not even he is entirely sure where his inspiration comes from. "I honestly can't say I can remember where the show came from," he laughs. "It's a whole narrative about doing these trial shows — and it's been a bit weird because we're doing trial shows now — but when it's finally on stage we'll be like 'this is the show, and I'm going to tell you about the horrific experiences I had doing the trial shows that lead up to this.' So it's ended up being that kind of structure, and I honestly can't tell you where that idea came from."

"Suddenly this drug addicted homeless man just had all the higher status, this weird moral superiority over me! It was just sensational."

The results of this existential experiment, I, Woodley, has fellow comedian Bob Franklin in the director's chair. "I'm just so wrapped that I got Bob involved," Woodley says, "he's got this really fantastic comic mind, and he appreciates all different genres of comedy." Woodley also says of the process of working with Franklin, "It just seems like one of the more effortless processes that I've had over the years. I wrote up a kind of draft based on what we'd been talking about, and then he edited it like a maniac - he just went at it with a chainsaw. I had written a draft that was about 15,000 words, and in that first editing session, it got cut down to 8,000 words. It was brutal but so good."

While the story in I, Woodley is a fictional one, Woodley says almost all of the instances in the new show are totally real. "Although they weren't chronological, they were sort hijacked to serve this one narrative. The incidents all happened over a ten or so year period and I've just sort of cherry picked them."

One such story is that of a run-in with a homeless man who is clearly not a fan of the comedian. "That's completely based on a true story!" he says. "This homeless guy was on the footpath, he looked pretty stoned and he even had some sort of drug paraphernalia around him. And as I walked past he goes 'can I have some money?' And I was sort of put on the spot so I went 'oh, sorry mate,' and kept walking. Then he goes 'Ohh, you! You've never been funny! The only thing funny about you is that you think you're funny!' It was just this sensational thing where suddenly this drug addicted homeless man just had all the higher status, this weird moral superiority over me! It was just sensational."

As a staple of the Aus comedy scene for nearly 30 years, Woodley says that being one of the nation's most loved physical comedians has taken a bit of a toll. "I feel like, at this stage, I can still fall over if I need to, but I'm certainly not as keen to do that as when I was younger. Even from really early on, from about 25 years old, falling over became the kind of thing where you'd fall over and you'd just want to stay on the ground and have a little sleep after." While he is a master of pratfalls, Woodley also says "I think the point of leverage is an idea. It's not some sort of great display of physicality; it's about having an idea that when you communicate it, it just goes straight into people's brains because there's not even the obstacle of words there."

Nevertheless, even as Woodley heads towards three decades of making people laugh, he can still pull out a few surprises for I, Woodley. "I reckon it's got the best ending of any show I've ever done. Let's put it that way - a little enigmatic."

Frank Woodley's I, Woodley,  plays 16 — 19 Mar at Brisbane Powerhouse, part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival, 30 Mar — 16 Apr at the Arts Centre Melbourne, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and 5 — 7 May at the Giant Dwarf, part of Sydney Comedy Festival.