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Frank Woodley is nervous. He's pacing the stage, throwing his limbs askew, and flapping his hands around while telling a funny story, so much so that his hands become the joke and he boldly announces that this is the night Frank Woodley's hands flew away. A little way into Woodley's new Bewilderbeest show, and you realise of course that very little is left to nerves or chance - Woodley improvises and riffs his way through a solid and well written routine with ease. With many a stand-up act, you can clearly see the shifts of gear from one batch of material to the next. Woodley however, is not a stand-up comic per se, and the transitions are seamless, hidden as much by the range of performance styles as by the varied material.

Woodley moves imperceptibly from introducing his show, telling us it's just going to be him on stage crapping on, into the guts of the first act itself. He has the shy, nervous guy persona (familiar from the Lano and Woodley days) to fall back on, but he's just as likely to sidestep that shtick by making fun of that very performance style. Meanwhile, the musical interludes seem to mostly consist of stringing together funny noises and comic non-sequitors over some rather skillful stripped-back guitar playing, and they succeed as much by the charm of his own performance as from the material. Woodley has the air of somebody goofing around in their loungeroom to please themselves, but done with such deftness and skill that you willingly indulge him his place on the stage.

So, you might chuckle admiringly rather than laugh outright, as demonstrated by a sketch that sees Woodley trying to get his pet (rubber) goldfish back into their bowl, flopping around on the floor and shooting from his hands like bright orange bars of soap, but you indulge him because when he finishes he confesses that it's much more fun to perform that sketch than to watch - and he just can't give it up. A better combination of skill and laughs is to be seen in an extended slapstick mime routine that is an ode to his drunk Uncle Sid playing golf; hardly anyone does this kind of comedy anymore (and it seems to be neither especially Australian nor contemporary), but it's great fun and hugely enjoyable to watch nonetheless. And by this point he has most of the audience in the palm of his hand, so much so that a seemingly throwaway gag asking us to laugh uproariously and give a standing ovation is paid out willingly by the audience when he casually throws out the invitation.

After earlier comic tributes to his Uncle Tom and Uncle Sid, Woodley rounds out the show with some fine verbal silliness, recalling his Uncle Bernie as the man who perfected the art of non-swearing swearing, yelling out cryptic expletives to the footy on TV, calling players and umpires "turkey burgers" and "Dickensian fruitbats", and wailing out a "Oh, chaperone me home!" at a near-missed goal.

Frank Woodley's Bewilderbeest is currently playing at the Forum until April 18.


A Token Event
Bewilderbeest
Frank Woodley

Venue: Forum Theatre, Downstairs | Cnr Flinders & Russell Sts, Melbourne
Dates: 25 March - 18 April, 2010
Times: Tue - Sat 8.30pm, Sun 7.30pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: All Tix Sat $29.90 | Full $29.90 | Conc $27.90 | Tightarse Tuesday $26.90
Bookings: Ticketek 132 849 | At the door

* Licensed venue. Under 18s must be accompanied by a Parent or Legal Guardian.