Frank Woodley specialises in planned spontaneity.
In a sold-out Tivoli Theatre on a stage loaded with props, Frank Woodley burst forth with a dramatic, if stumbled entrance in his typically dapper tweed suit.
As he delivered a very physical stand-up reflecting on the essence of his comedic style and justifying it to one of the Russian clowning greats, it may have looked like hilarious chaos, yet every look, word, stutter and stumble was perfectly contrived.
Frank Woodley has an experienced understanding of timing that allows him to take a gag, stretch it out to hilarity, keep stretching until it seems to be going too far, then add an element and continue stretching to the point of side-splitting laughter.
His physical humour looked so natural that so much meaning could be conveyed with expressions, stumbles and slapstick slip-ups. At times you could even see audience members massaging their cheeks to ease the pain of laughing so much.
While the physical elements of Woodley’s performance were stand out, he could easily keep an audience engaged with a pure vocal stand-up. Elements of ‘*@#!KING CLOWN’ would have been planned, written and rehearsed well in advance, but there were plenty of comedic takes on current events seamlessly added to the act as though they were there all along.
His comedic storytelling alone was wonderfully put together, with references to earlier moments of the show brought back in at just the right points to make hilariously surprise punchlines.
Even a one-off musical piece was a surreal journey of imaginative delight.
Slipping in and out of character voices, costumes and prop scenarios, there was never a lull in the performance, with it somehow going by too quickly, while also having felt like you got a lot more than a one-hour show.
