ACCORDING to funny-man Wil Anderson, content is not always king. The method behind your madness is the key.
Currently on a national stand up tour (Man vs Wil), while hosting the ABC’s most popular show, The Gruen Transfer, Anderson must be hard pressed to find more clever Wil puns, let alone fresh gags.
Nevertheless, the acclaimed comic says it’s just as much about likeability, when it comes to getting a laugh.
“Sometimes it’s not about the material,” Anderson admits.
“Some people get bitchy and say to me they don’t find Hamish and Andy funny, but I just say, they’re just great company.
“You like hanging out with them... we forget part of it is just relationships. We get hung up a lot on content.
“I could happily listen to Tony Martin talk about anything.
“It’s indefinable.”
It’s the X Factor that The Gruen Transfer’s popularity is based on.
“It’s basically a group of people sitting around a desk,” Anderson says.
“It’s whether you’re interested in those people talking about those things.... (if so) then it works.”
What also works for Anderson, is the need for comics to find their own voice; something that took him a decade to locate.
“Dave Hughes and Judith Lucy had it from an early age,” Anderson says.
“It took me 10 years to find my common voice on stage.
“Like bands, when you first start out you’re the sum of your influences.
“But there’s a point you have to get to where you have to let your influences go and find your own voice.”
Anderson has not only found his own voice, but reclaimed his mojo after his last show on the ABC, The Glass House, was canned in 2006.
Much like the time following the Howard-baiting TGH was axed, the task of hosting Gruen can be a nightmare.
For Anderson, it’s a subtle juggling act of knowing when to be funny, when to be the straight man, when to ask the serious and funny question, and knowing the difference between the two.
No wonder he says the best time he’s had on TV has been the “all fun, no responsibility” role on Good News Week, or the “really naughty, rowdy, drunken dinner party” atmosphere of TGH.
“It felt like we were trying to be as funny as possible and offend as many people as possible,” Anderson says.
Where TGH was a frat party, Gruen is a much more dignified affair.
“Gruen is a very different beast, it’s much more challenging,” Anderson says.
“It’s harder to do, I can’t just be funny I’ve got a heap of different roles and responsibilities.
“And sometimes the best thing for me to do is not be funny.”
While he’s never run a marathon, he’s certain it would be pretty similar to hosting Gruen.
“While you’re running the marathon, I imagine you’re not enjoying it too much,” Anderson says.
“There might be moments you enjoy but a lot of the time you’re like ‘sh*t, I’ve just got to keep going’.
“Wee is coming down my leg but I’ve got to keep going.
“But once you’ve done it you’re very proud of what you’ve achieved.”
Never one to take a rest, Anderson is also in the thick of his other “job”: strangely, stand up is much more predictable.
“A lot of my comedy is mood-dependent,” he says.
“I always say it’s a two-way performance.
“If the audience is tough, they’ll get the show I prepared.
“But if the audience is great and really into it, you get the show and everywhere else my mind tends to wander.”
Wil Anderson plays Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal on Friday, November 18.
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