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Otago Daily Times

Chopper to visit city

Heath Franklin's Chopper will once again wow audiences with his unique comic appeal. Photo: supplied A time-travelling outlaw from 2030 will ride into Dunedin when Australian comedian Heath Franklin brings his cult alter ego Chopper to town on Saturday, June 14. His latest tour The Last Hard B*stard on Earth has Chopper busting through time to stop an imagined collapse brought on by "gentle parenting, love languages and paper straws". The alter ego of Chopper as a "crude, bogany kind of person" provides an opportunity to subvert and lampoon modern anxieties. While Franklin allows a "window for the zeitgeist" he tends to avoid following topical news issues too closely. "You need to make sure you write a show that can tour for six or 12 months without people being like, 'what is he talking about again'?" After two decades on stage, Franklin still relishes the build-up to a fresh tour. "Every year I write a whole new hour of jokes." While Franklin has a plan for his shows, he makes time for unique moments to emerge at every gig. Dunedin audiences can expect a show that is not simply a carbon copy. "It is nice to know that there was something about that experience that was unique to that show, that it is not just almost a version of pressing play on a tape recorder." Franklin enjoys the enthusiastic spirit of New Zealand that tends to avoid the heckle culture more prevalent in Australia. "In New Zealand, there is a real enthusiasm where people just kind of, they are so excited they want to be part of it." "They are usually big enthusiastic audiences and everyone is pretty benevolent and all on the same page." Franklin treats Chopper like a work uniform. "There is a real on and off switch now." When the house lights go up, the tattoos come off and the handlebar moustache is tucked away. "It is a little bit like if someone worked at McDonald's. "They don't go to the bar afterwards in their uniform." Although he has inhabited Chopper for many years, a 2023 stand-up tour as himself reaffirmed his appetite for the moustached, in-your-face character. "My interest in it was reinvigorated and I knew that I actually wanted to be there, I was not just putting one foot in front of the other. "I had all these ideas and I was like, 'oh wow, this is great', I know that I really want to be here now instead of it just being a recurring habit." Heath Franklin's Chopper The Last Hard Bastard on Earth Saturday, June 14 7pm Regent Theatre