Joe Avati Of 'Straight Outtta Compo' On Why He's Laughing In The Face Of One Nation

If you find Pauline Hanson's video diatribe against Cadbury's Easter eggs being halal somewhat ridiculous in a multicultural Australia where around 400 different languages are spoken and 75% of the population identify with overseas ancestry, you're not alone. Family-friendly Sydney Comedy Festival show Straight Outta Compo is just the ticket for you, containing as it does a comic swipe at her particular brand of madness. 

"They've just been given too much air, these people, there's a lot of racism and bigotry out there and you know the only way to shut it down is through humour," says Straight Outta Compo producer and stand-up star Joe Avati, whose grandparents migrated here from Italy.

"We're pissed off about it, but we're not taking them seriously," he adds, before sharing his grandfather's smartly snappy real estate response to the slur, 'All wogs should go back home': "Which one, I've got five?"

A swear-free zone of stand-up, sketches, musical and video interludes, Avati is joined on stage by Greek-Australian comedy veteran George Kapiniaris, perhaps best known for the seminal TV show Acropolis Now. Here Come the Habibs creators and stars Tahir Bilgic, of Turkish descent, and Rob Shehadie, of Lebanese descent, round out this foursome of awesome.

"We support each other, high-five each other and it's great; like family."

Bilgic and Avati first met at The Comedy Store in Sydney 20 years ago and the four men have worked together in many iterations since. "We've been together for a very long time and you can tell, because the chemistry on stage is great," Avati says.

In a classic case of same but different, Avati recognised his own family, growing up in Sydney's inner-west, while watching Here Come The Habibs. "When my grandparents arrived from Italy, they were living in Strathfield's golden mile, so here we are in this really affluent area with my wog grandparents selling goats out the back of the house."

They relish reworking their material to keep the laughs sharp. "A lot of comedians are very precious about their stand-up routines, 'Don't tell me what to do or how to do it,' whereas we'll sit down with each other and change up our routine all the time," Avati says. "We support each other, high-five each other and it's great; like family."

The constant tinkering keeps them on their toes, as do return audiences who aren't shy of saying if they think the previous show was funnier. With a deft eye for each culture's idiosyncrasies and the common ground shared between us all, Straight Outta Compo's pun-tastic name makes a joke of old digs unfairly suggesting Greeks, Italian and Lebanese people were all on worker's comp. It follows a tradition in Avati's previous hit productions, starting with Il Dago instead of Il Divo. "There are a couple of sketches about compo, because we thought, 'Since we've called it that, we better do something about it'."

Avati's favourite sketch from the new show involves an anger management class. "For wogs, can you imagine?" he chuckles. "In the end, we make the guy teaching the class go crazy."

There's also an ethnic twist on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? "We all stuff up bad and it's very funny," Avati promises. "George plays a Greek yiayia [grandmother] who's asked, 'What is the capitol of Australia?' and she says, 'The capital of Australia is the letter A, thank you very much'."