Laugh! Lines: Frank Woodley

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

An occasional series asking comedians at the International TV2 Laugh! Festival what makes them tick.

Ladies and gentlemen ... Frank Woodley, the gangly half of Melbourne shambolic slapstick duo Lano and Woodley appearing in Lano and Woodley Are Slick

What is it about duos?

I think over the years we've just naturally become more and more like a classic comedy duo with the cool straight guy and the monkey sidekick and I think it works. The reason that it is classic is that it works.

What's the pecking order in comedy - if you do physical stuff are you looked down on by those who rely only on their verbal wits?

Well as physical comedians we think we are more sophisticated because we are using all our faculties to express ourselves. Whereas the verbal comedians think that all we can do is hit each other with blunt instruments and that we're really glorified buskers. Depends on who you talk to.

Has your brushes with television changed what you do or how you do it?

To be honest I don't think it's changed us because we were always influenced by TV when we were creating the theatre stuff.We were always going 'aw like the thing that Jerry Lewis did' or being subconsciously influenced by Get Smart or The Goodies and having watched a million episodes of MASH. In a way it's sort of more natural for us to be doing the TV.

What's the meaning of the title to your live show?

Originally we were going to make out that we were going to be more professional and more slick with the show and then it would all fall apart around us. But one day our manager Michelle said: "Do you realise that the show sounds you are saying: 'Lano and Woodley ass lick'." Oh no! And it was too late to change the posters or anything. So maybe the show is about the fact that Lano and Woodley are very flattering people.

Does it take a lot of professionalism to appear as amateur as sometimes you can?

I'll take that as a compliment. It's a little bit of both actually. The great loophole in our style is a lot of the things we do, we stuff up on purpose. But that means that when we do stuff up because we haven't rehearsed something sufficiently the audience can't really tell.

Name your favourite comedy duos Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis, Abbot and Costello, Simon and Garfunkel ... well you must admit they did have the look of a classic comedy duo didn't they?

It seems your style of humour travels well ...

It's a sad but true fact that if you hit somebody in the head it's funny all around the world. Although, it's interesting slapstick. I've seen some bad slapstick. When you see bad slapstick it really is just shocking, you just think 'don't do that please'. Seeing someone fall over, it can be kind of cheesy but if you see somebody do it well, like if you watch a Clouseau film or a Get Smart and you see somebody doing slapstick well, I do think it can be the funniest comedy ever.

* Lano and Woodley Are Slick is at the Laugh Chamber (Auckland Town Hall) from Monday May 8 until Saturday May 15, 7 pm.