Wil Anderson : Wiluminati

By Jayden Edwards

Wil Andersonā€™s been around comedy for a while. Almost 20 years in fact. Heā€™s won countless awards, constantly sells out runs and heā€™s been beamed into millions of homes on the telly every week. ā€œMy shoes are older than youā€ he tells one of his younger fans just after taking to the stage. With so much experience and success, one wonders if he really needs this review to be written. I mean, if positive reviews get bums in seats, this may just help contribute to another sell out run, creating far too many bums for seats.

Never the less, he gave me reviewer tickets, so iā€™d best review it.

After a rockstar welcome and some quick audience banter, Wil starts the show with a brilliantly told tale of his first ever New York gig, a lifelong ambition. ā€œI love telling this storyā€ he proclaims, and leaves no doubt, telling it with truckloads of his trademark enthusiasm and confidence. He notes how he loves to show off at dinner parties with the story, adding a lot of ā€œsugarā€, and iā€™m sure we got more than a few spoonful as well; itā€™s just makes Wilā€™s comedy so much sweeter. The story has a great twist that i wonā€™t give away, but itā€™s a genius stroke, and a testament to Wilā€™s finely tuned comic timing and the effort he puts into his structuring. With this tale, he has the audience transfixed and eating out of his hands.

His first yarn sets up themes of chance taking, life experience and growing older. Theyā€™re loose themes that leave room to move, and they tie up the show nicely towards the end with some help from some Eminem lyrics. He goes on to talk about moving to America, including a great rant about their racist ā€œOutbackā€ restaurants, some embarrassing issues with his ā€œdodgy hipsā€ and another great yarn about a gig in Alaska. Thereā€™s a little bit of political stuff too, which in the past is where Wil thrives with his hilarious point driven, angry rants, but in Wiluminati it takes a bit of a back seat, his storytelling the beneficiary.

Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s the countless hours of experience on stage, or just his life experience and ā€˜adventure seekingā€™ that makes Wilā€™s storytelling so fixating. I suspect itā€™s a combination of the two. Whatever it is, itā€™s only getting better with age. Entertaining tales and big punchlines with a point, you canā€™t ask for anything else really. Wil As good as Aussie stand-up gets.

Wiluminati is on at The Comedy Theatre until April 20
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/wiluminati-wil-anderson