Life in the fast lane was no joke

Comedian Wil Anderson can be brutally honest about his life and idiosyncrasies when he is on stage. Off stage, life recently began to imitate one of the subjects of his art- the nature of fame and celebrity- and he admits it was a surreal experience. He recently struck up a friendship with one of Australia's most famous celebrities, Kate Fischer, and found himself in the spotlight."Its the strange thing about being on stage that you will tell anybody everything- but off stage, i'm genuinely one of those private people," he said. "You never see me out at everything- that's not part of my life. All the stuff that ensued with her (Fischer) were private moments captured in that moment- none of it was orchestrated or anything- and it was very weird to be mentioned for that" Anderson returns to his greatest love, stand-up comedy, at the Sydney Fringe Festival this week. Sydney adopted the former Melbourne journalist last year when he moved to co-host Triple J's breakfast show with Adam Spencer. "It's very funny being known as Sydney comedian Wil Anderson- i don't know how that's going to go down at the Melbourne Comedy Festival." He laughed. Anderson was also a regular on Good News week and other television comedy shows and, while he enjoys the work, he would give up multimedia to perform comedy every night of the week. "I am one of those people who can be completely inept at a party trying to make small talk, but put me in front of 1000 total strangers and i can talk for hours and say things i would never say to anyone." There is no doubt Anderson relishes the risk of stand-up comedy. He has issued a warning to those who are considering going to his shows at the Bondi Pavilion this weekend- stay away. "I think you should warn people there will be a lot of crap in these shows because these three shows will set the stage for what the show will become this year," he said. Wil Anderson is at the Bondi Pavilion on Friday, Saturday and next Sunday. Sunday Telegraph, 7/1/01