Comedy Festival 2018: Wil Anderson’s Wilegal an arresting show ★★★★
WIL Anderson gets comedy mileage from a not-so-funny thing that happened to him on an ill-fated flight from Sydney to Wagga Wagga.
Comedy Festival
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THE backdrop depicting a police car, a plane, and police uniform epaulets, offers clues that Wil Anderson’s new show, Wilegal, is taking on a significant legal incident.
A not-so-funny thing happened to Anderson in June 2017, when the 44-year-old vegetarian and host of ABC’s The Gruen Factor, took a flight in a tiny plane from Sydney to Wagga Wagga, only to suffer the indignity of being arrested and jailed as a result of a conflation of unfortunate events.
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Viewers more familiar with Anderson’s slick, measured, on-TV-persona, may be shocked when they first witness Anderson’s pumped, evangelically fast-talking, stage alter ego.
Absent from Anderson’s new routine is his legendary, laser-like focus on contemporary Australian sociopolitical issues. While this reviewer missed Anderson’s potent insights, others were enthralled by the minutiae of a remarkable incident that was profoundly humbling for this gifted comic.
This is Anderson at his most introspective: when he speaks of being destroyed and embarrassed by the incident, one obtains a rare insight into the heartfelt humanity of one of Australia’s finest raconteurs.
In the hands of lesser comedians, this show, with its single-story focus, would be done and dusted in 15 minutes. Anderson artfully forges 75 minutes of insightful, nailbiting, gobsmacking, comedy gold from his airline mishap and its painful fallout.
For those who have had run-ins with the law, Anderson’s tale will ring bells. Others should take Anderson’s tale as a warning of the risks presented by hypersensitive airline staff and over-reactive police.
Wil Anderson, Wilegal.
Comedy Theatre, corner Lonsdale and Exhibition Streets, Melbourne, from 28th March 2018 until Saturday 22 April 2018.
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