An Interview with “Frank Woodley”
Many of you out there will probably already have heard that, sadly, Lano & Woodley have decided to call it a day after performing together for 20 years. I understand that Frank would like to get more involved with filmmaking (he won the Melbourne Comedy Festival Short Film Award two years ago), and solo standup and Colin is interested in becoming more involved with ‘straight’ theatre and possibly journalism. They’ve called their final show “Goodbye” and it will tour around Australia including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Frank Woodley was kind enough to answer a few questions about the upcoming show…and stuff.
When writing this show did you already know/ suspect it would be your last?
Yeah, we decided a little while ago. The show is a combination of some classic bits, some bits from the vault that are so old that there are hieroglyphics carved into the pyramids of us doing these routines, and some new stuff written specifically about this being our goodbye tour.
Did this affect the writing of the show?
Writing the Goodbye stuff has been strange. We obviously genuinely feel full-on about calling it a day after all this time, so it has been a bit peculiar writing routines around it. It’s a bit like getting a divorce and then taking a show about it on the road for a year. Mind you, there’s no animosity between us and we’ve actually been having a great time putting the show together. Such a good time in fact that on a number of occasions we’ve looked at each other and said, “Is this the biggest mistake we’ve ever made in our lives?”
What do you remember of your 1st Melbourne Comedy Festival gig?
Our very first show was a little bit more sketch comedy than what we ended up doing. There was some pixie union officials, Father Richard Sodgers (Who ended up as a character in our TV show) a soul-music jester, a dolphin dance number … all sorts of rubbish. We thought it was pretty funny. The audience were undecided.
Do you have a favourite show or gig?
After we won the Perrier award at the Edinburgh festival (What’s that tooting noise? I think it might be the sound of a man blowing his own trumpet.) We did a show in London’s West End and it was just one of those shows where everything fell into place. A moth flew onto stage and we did some improvising around it, named it Byron and said it was part of the show and travelled with us everywhere. Later on a joke fell a bit flat and we blamed Byron cause he normally comes on at this time … and right at this moment the moth flew back on. That kind of thing kept happening through the whole show. The Comedy God’s were shining that night.
Last years show “The Island” had an amazing BIG PROP. (I Loved it) Did you regret designing/having to work with it? It must’ve made travelling a bit more cumbersome…?
No it was fine because it folded down to about the size of a lunchbox and we’d take it on the plane as hand luggage. (If you know the actual device that comment is mildly amusing.) [hmmm – is Frank pulling my leg? – Lisa]
Do you feel pressure of having to try and top past shows?
A little bit. We were really proud of “The Island” and in some ways that may have contributed to our decision to stop touring. We want to go out feeling that Lano and Woodley never became jaded or let our passion wane.
I read a non-plussed review in The Age by Andrew Murfett (someone who obviously hadn’t seen you before):
“An unexpected fire and unintentional stage malfunctions provided added mileage and drew plenty of laughs out of the adoring audience. ... The Island is a shambles – not that this is necessarily a bad thing. With the show based on improvisation, it’s hard to say if Lano and Woodley’s blunders are intentional.”
I know however how tightly scripted and rehearsed your shows are – with the kind of physical comedy you do, timing etc is obviously very important! Does it bother you that people might believe you just make it up slap-dash, after all the work you put in? Or does this amuse you? (the review made me laugh!)
The highest compliment someone can give us is to think that the show really was a shambles, but a hilarious one. Our whole intention is to take the audience into this world where there’s constant chaos but with this sense that somehow all these failures and stuff ups are accidentally generating joy.
Will you be a bit weepy at your very last show do you think?
I think we’ll cry so much on that last show that I recommend the audience bring scuba gear.
For the details on your very last chance to catch this legendary duo go to Lano & Woodley – Goodbye