“Chopper’s hosting it which is great because he can come out and whip everyone out into a frenzy, bring out a few comedians who people may not have heard of and hopefully people will get along to see their shows. Then at the end of the night he’ll bring out a really big name, a legend of Australian comedy, and give the whole evening a real sense of occasion, you know?”
“I can’t give away too many big names at this point, but we’ll be releasing them on the day. So far we’ve had Dave Hughes, Peter Helliar, Wil Anderson…big solid names. We’ve been doing it in Adelaide for a few years now so it seems strange not to give the people in Melbourne a go as well. We’re really looking forward to it. It usually goes right off here so I can only imagine what it’ll be like in Melbourne with an extra 400 people.”
It’s been an interesting year for Franklin, with the passing of Mark “Chopper” Read from liver cancer last October. “I have to admit I find that people’s attention span is quite short these days,” says Franklin. “Considering it was last year…people for the most part have forgotten about it. It’s hovering somewhere in their consciousness, but it’s certainly not front of mind anymore.”
“It was quite a strange day to be quite honest. It’s not like we were really close or anything like that, I think we only met once or twice, but it’s strange because so much of my life has been connected to this guy directly or indirectly and yeah to have him die was quite strange. To a certain extent, he put such an effort into making sure his story was more myth than fact. I don’t think there’s anyone who could tell you exactly what he did and didn’t do and all that sort of stuff. I guess in a strange way his passing was a bit like ‘alright, well the legend continues’. Whether it’s based on truth or otherwise, he’s still out there.”
I wonder out loud whether young, inexperienced comics might be a little nervous receiving a call from Uncle Chop-Chop asking them to meet him late at night in a dingy green-room in the bowels of the Athenaeum. However, Franklin assures me that “for the most part everyone is bang up for it. It’s also going to be at the main room of the Athenaeum, so there’ll be lots of witnesses if anything does go down.”
BY JOSH FERGEUS
