HQ Interview

HQ, March/April 2000, Catherine Caines. Wil Anderson once quoted Billy Bragg to describe his style: "Mixing pop and politics they ask me what the use is/ I offer them embarrassment and and my usual excuses." He adds, "the style is now less manic, less preaching and the audience has to do a little more work." The former political journalist is now one of the hottest comedians in Australia and a star of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Wise guy Anderson is more likely to die from a workaholic's heart attack than a Belshiesque speed ball. If you were looking to recruit a partner in crime then Wil Anderson would be the consummate wet dream. Armed with a tongue so sharp it must be on steroids, with Wil Anderson as your accomplice you'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Until that is, the police's "usual suspects" lin-up/ Even with a charisma bypass, the tall, dark and handsome comedian is so irrepressibly in your face you'd better hope the lawyer on the end of your one phone call is The Practice's Dylan McDermott. Anderson's serious approach to the business of being funny is the conclusive reason why he has reached the top so fast and had better get used to the view. But success' scenic view is not without high altitude risks as the 26-year-old is soon to discover. Anderson will headline three shows at the Melbourne Internation Comedy Festival from March 30th until April 23rd. Keep your stamina for: Terra Willius, Who Wants To Be A Wilionaire and 5ive (Thirty), performed with the ABC's mathematical Adam Spencer. Doing his best impersonation of a sado masochist, Anderson's decision to inflict such an intense schedule is "Purely a creative choice," he says. "Financially it would be better to do one because essentially you split your audience, but I want to push what I do and the Festival is a nice way of doing that. "To perform three different shows concurrently will be challenging. I want to see whether my head space can exist in those two planes at the same time. It's exciting to see how those things develop and what I will learn about myself and what I do going through the process." For us mere mortals, three simultaneous comedy shows might require a substance addiction, but on planet Anderson it's just part of a routine which has come to include regular television appearances on Good News Week and the like, and a continuing comic dual on JJJ's Breakfast Show each Monday and Tuesday with Spencer. "The more famous you are the more slackness you can get away with. You could be like a good cheap celebrity person.  But for me it has always been about people and coming to see the work," says Anderson in response to the lure of cheap celebrity. "The real danger is if you become part of the system. Then it's very hard to make fun of the system.  As a professional I have to make fun of people, my job is to cut through the shit. And I wouldn't be doing my job as a comedian if I avoided that. It's my responsibility to take the piss." So is Wil Anderson the Gwyneth Paltrow of comedy? "The last thing we need is some young, white, middle class boy whining about his life," he replies. "Comedy is indulgent enough without me taking a step into it. "With the Melbourne Comedy Festival I know I could sell out my show every night with whatever crap I wanted to do because my fans would give me at least a year. And sure, I could use whatever level of radio and television I have to get all these people in no matter how shite my show was... but you have to decide what do I owe to those people? For me, I would never feel good performing unless I was putting on the best show possible." With a style of humour that jars open society's Pandora's box of sins, Anderson is dedicated to the highwire of stand-up. "I look at it from the perspective that doing it is the achievement," he explains. "My aims are, 'well this is what I want to do and I'll just keep doing it until somebody makes me stop.' I would be doing comedy if I didn't get paid to do it.