‘Lovable, scruffy’ Chopper back in action
Australian Comedian Heath Franklin is bringing his “scuffy, bogan” character Chopper to Wellington as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival.
Today, he is appearing in the Comedy Gala at the Opera House, the opening night of the festival and he will be doing his solo show there on May 18,
Chopper, a truth-spitting moustached figure, will introduce New Zealand audiences to his latest show, Not Here to F*ck Spiders, in a tour which will span from Auckland to Invercargill.
Speaking to Stuff from Auckland, Franklin said Chopper would discuss all the “stupid things people have been doing lately”, he said.
“Thankfully for me, as a comedian, we keep on doing lots of stupid things.”
“Not Here to F..k Spiders” is an Australian phrase that means “not here to f..k around,” Franklin said. Chopper would be putting his unique spin on everything from vaping to e-scooters, to slightly more controversial and taboo topics.
The comedian’s 2024 return to New Zealand comes a year after his trial shows in Auckland last year.
He said the shows were great, but the audiences may have been “a little bit too polite”, with Australian audiences giving him more honest feedback on his material.
Generally Kiwis had a “bit more of a darker sense of humour” than Aussies, not gratuitously morbid, but more connected to reality, which suited him.
While he hadn’t spent much time in Wellington, in 2009 when he was shooting a film in Taranaki, he said every now and then when they had a couple of days off they would sneak down to Wellington.
“It’s nice to spend time there when we get the chance.”
Franklin has based his character around Mark “Chopper” Read, who was a wellknown figure in the Australian underworld, known for the killing and maiming of other criminal figures.
Read became known internationally through the 2000 movie Chopper, starring actor Eric Bana.
When asked why he chose such a controversial figure as a comedic persona, Franklin said he was simply a fan of the movie, particularly Bana’s portrayal of Chopper.
“It was quite dark but quite funny in places like there were moments of surreal comedy.
‘‘I thought that if you shifted the tone a bit more towards comedy and keep a little bit of the darker stuff, that it would actually be quite funny.”
Franklin said he quickly learned everyone had a Chopper story they wanted to tell him.
“The more I learned about the real
Chopper, the more I was like, well that’s not funny!
‘‘I decided I was going to be less encumbered by trying to be biographical ... I took a photocopy of the character and ran with it in my own direction.”
The real Chopper had his ears cut off in prison.
Franklin said he would definitely not be doing that.
“I think my wife would be very unhappy ... I also don’t want to rule out the possibility of wearing glasses later in life. I don’t want to be like a 60-year-old guy who needs to put goggles on to see.”
– Heath Franklin’s Chopper will play at the Wellington Opera House on May 18, at the Galobox Arena in Hamilton on May 23 and at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch on June 7. Tickets: ticketek