Heath Franklin's infamous alter-ego, Chopper, returns to comedy festival's around Australia with new show, 'Repeat Offender'.
Franklin has been performing on stage as one of Australia's most notorious criminals for over seven years now. When asked if Chopper has become part of Franklin's psyche he considers the question for quite a few seconds before replying. “It's easy to turn to switch off and on now after nearly a decade of practice. I can go from being Heath to Chopper very quickly. I kinda put a lot of myself into Chopper anyway so maybe there's no need to differentiate.”
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Clearly, Chopper has become at least a small part of him. Though he isn't recognised as often as you would think. “Nah, well very rarely, except for the people who've been around since the 'Ronnie John's Half Hour', but for the most part I can sneak around unrecognised. Some days it's good, other days you kinda want a bit of recognition, a bit of a pat on the back. Recognition is a kind of compliment, but for the most part it's nice just to sneak around.”
You would imagine it could be difficult to continue a comedy routine after the subject passes away, as was the case for Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read in October 2013. On this Franklin reflects: "I sorta sussed out the vibe a bit first, I had a gig that night and I did it as me [instead of in character]. I'm pretty sure that most people understand what I do. I'm so far removed from the real Chopper now. It's not a problem."
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Though he admits: "The only thing that's changed is people have stopped confusing me for the real Chopper. There used to be times where I'd do the radio interview or, something like that, in character and people would ring up and be like 'I can't believe you're that despicable human being'. I think that's the only difference.
“I mean, some people in Melbourne were a bit mad about it but you know what Melbourners are like. They're proud of everything that happens there even if it is violent crime so they were a little bit like 'nah you can't do that'. I was sort of like 'well we all agree he wasn't an upstanding citizen or anything like that'.”
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Heath did have to opportunity to meet the real Chopper once. “We met once at a photo shoot for a magazine and it was just pretty weird to tell you the truth. Mostly because I was dressed up as him and that's a weird way to meet anyone, especially someone as notoriously violent as he was. He had a real moustache and real tattoos, whereas I had a fake moustache and Texta tattoos. It was just kinda strange to be honest. I don't think either of us had an amazing time.”
Heath takes the time to point out that while he does play Chopper, he brings more of Eric Bana's portrayal of Chopper to his performances. "Yeah, I'd say pretty much most [of my motivation comes from Eric], you know. I was just obsessed with the movie, I didn't know much about Chopper up until that point. I knew he existed and I kinda knew he was on 'Elle McFeast' drunk one night, something like that.
“The 'Chopper' movie was just so awesome. I was doing impersonations and parties and decided to take it to the stage and it worked pretty well. It's kind of like when you're writing for Chopper it's taking my opinion and applying a bit of Chopper perspective to it. If I'm angry about something I might write a strongly worded letter; if Chopper's angry about something he might point a shotgun at them, you know what I mean. It's about taking all my grievances and putting them in Chopper's world, putting on a moustache and getting a loaded gun."
I asked Heath for his opinion on Australian audiences and more specifically performing in Brisbane. "Look, Brisbane crowd's have always been pretty good really. It's one thing where you can have a bit of a stereotype of what an audience is like and then you get there and you're proven wrong. The first time I did Geelong, it was kind of like a drunken barfight kinda scenario. I was going back and I was like 'oh no not Geelong again' and I had just amazing gig there, I don't rush to stereotype audiences.
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“But the Brisbane [crowds] have always been really, really good and there's some really cool venues in Brisbane as well so that helps. If you had a choice of, say, Brisbane or Bundaberg, I reckon I'd probably take Brisbane pretty quickly. Now I've just offended everyone in Bundaberg, so that was a good idea."
Heath Franklin Tour Dates 2015
27 Feb – Brisbane Comedy Festival28 Feb – Salisbury Secret Garden (Adelaide)
18 March – Canberra Comedy Festival
4 April – Melbourne Comedy Festival
16 May – Perth Comedy Festival
