Comedy Festival 2018: Heath Franklin’s Chopper turns life coach in Bogan Jesus ★★★½

NOW working for the Big Guy, Heath Franklin pushes his Chopper character into life-coach territory as he reworks the Ten Commandments in his own bogan image. Hilarious.

ANY fear or even faint suspicion that Heath Franklin’s Chopper persona was running out of steam evaporate within the first few seconds of his smashing new stand-up show.

Playing to about 100 fans so devoted they chanted along to a signature song — a singularly eerie vision to witness — Franklin powered through a cleverly packaged, gag-packed routine of one-liners, put-downs and insults that nonetheless carried an upbeat vibe about how to live a better life. Think of it as life coaching with swear words.

In Bogan Jesus a deceased Chopper makes a reverse-Faustian deal with The Almighty; if He brings him back to life Chopper will devote his life to recruiting more followers to boost flagging church attendances. God agrees.

Heath Franklin's Chopper in Bogan Jesus.

Draped in his deathbed shround, Chopper then addresses his assembled flock, bantering with the audience briefly before announcing his mission — to make over the Ten Commandments and so save humanity.

It’s a clever hook that gives Franklin plenty of scope to weave in a chunky hit-list of topics and targets, including Chistmas carols, cat cafes, people who use leafblowers at 7am on a Sunday (a popular topic at this year’s festival, it seems) and, in a lovely bit of spiky satire, old-school racists who “need to bring something new to the table”.

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Though charged by God to bring us closer together Chopper relishes sharing the very deep and special hatred he has for atheists, who he finds more objectionable than scientologists, and bankers, who he clearly hates more than anybody. His wholesale slaying of the profession received the crowd’s riotous approval.

Like all crowd-pleasing, club-seasoned comedians Franklin never lets good taste get in the way of a good joke, a creed that offers an honest assessment on the intelligence of whales and dolphins, a rumination on people who have clearly lived too long and the funniest Oscar Pistorius gag ever.

Yet beneath the vulgar veneer — Franklin must hold the record for the amount of times the term “f-wit” can be used in a comedy routine — there are some admirably deft touches.

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In one of the show’s surprising highlights Chopper tentatively steps into the topic of transgenderism. Knowing full well what a minefield of raw nerves it is he not only addresses the issue of tolerance but uses it to slam-dunk a killer gag about the much-argued gender pay gap. It not only got a big laugh, but a sound round of applause.

Underlying his derision of those he detests, Franklin is also careful to stress how a community is not defined by the misdeeds of their worst members. It’s Chopper echoing the famous Monty Python Logician sketch from the Holy Grail soundtrack, explaining to his audience the “limitation of the conversion of a proposition”, but in his own stripped-down vernacular. What a treat.

Franklin has always embraced the bogan culture he caricatures, and here gives it special praise by making the strong case that the son of the bloke he works for was, in fact, a bogan.

It’s quite the revelation.

Heath Franklin’s Chopper, Bogan Jesus

The Athenaeum, Collins St, until 22 April.

comedyfestival.com.au