The funny guy explaining sickies and chockie bickies to the world
By Daniel Herborn
Melbourne-born, Los Angeles-based comedian Monty Franklin had been posting on social media for years before he hit on a simple but career-changing idea: explaining the Australian slang and idioms that baffled his American colleagues.
“I’d been putting out stuff that wasn’t breaking through or getting to anyone. It was frustrating for a while; I was trying to force stuff, and it didn’t come across as natural,” Franklin says.
True blue: Monty Franklin’s stand-up revolves around explaining the oddities of the Australian vernacular. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“But then I started making these dumb videos because I found every day there was a new word I would say where someone would go, ‘What is that!?’ I would have to explain myself so much.
“I find that when I do something that I find funny, it normally does pretty well.”
Doing pretty well is an understatement. Franklin’s social media following exploded from a few thousand to almost half a million once he started posting his Australian vernacular videos introducing the rest of the world to “chockie bickies”, “skolling tinnies” and “chucking a sickie”. His short videos have now racked up more than a billion views online, and a whole new audience has started following his comedy.
“It was something I just stumbled upon, but I find it very interesting with America and Australia how our cultures look the same but are very different,” he says.
Franklin’s fascination with cultural differences is a theme in his latest stand-up hour, which he is about to perform across Australia on his biggest tour of his home country yet.
Titled Yeah, Nah after the distinctly Australian phrase, it’s already proved a popular draw in Europe, where Franklin recently performed to sold-out theatres in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
After shows, he would often meet fans who were learning English as a second or third language, and they explained they watched his videos to pick up new vocabulary. “I said to them, ‘That’s a terrible way to learn! Don’t do that anywhere outside Australia, or you’ll get arrested’,” he laughs.
While he’s now made inroads into the hyper-competitive US market, there were times after his move to LA when Franklin feared he’d made a terrible mistake. He’d left behind a flourishing stand-up, radio and television career in Australia to start again stateside. For the first few years of his American life, he earned almost no money – his first cheque was for US$8 – and slept on friends’ couches.
‘They don’t care if you’ve done well in Australia. They don’t even care if you go to New York and you’ve done well in LA.’
Monty Franklin
“It’s very, very difficult to start stand-up in LA or New York,” he says. “You’d literally have to line up for hours to possibly get three minutes of stage time the next week, and you’d perform at 1am.
“I’d have to prove myself everywhere I went, in each different market. They don’t care if you’ve done well in Australia. They don’t even care if you go to New York and you’ve done well in LA. It was a lot of work.”
A breakthrough moment came when he was gigging at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, and another act on the bill, actor and comedian Rob Schneider, quizzed him about touring Australia. Shortly after, Schneider offered him the support slot for an upcoming run of dates and the pair became friends and collaborators.
Franklin and Schneider recently teamed up with John Cleese to write and star in an upcoming film, The Great Emu War, which retells a barely believable chapter of Australian history: when the army tried – and failed – to reduce the out-of-control emu population in the 1930s.
Working on the film, which he describes as a Crocodile Dundee-style crowd-pleaser, has been a dream project for Franklin.
He had also grown up idolising Cleese and says the Fawlty Towers star, who plays his father in the film, is “exactly like you want him to be”.
“I’ve never seen someone who is so silly yet commands so much respect from people. I learnt from him that kindness doesn’t mean weakness.
“I feel like now we’ve created a father-son bond, and it’s been one of the really nice points in my life. I’ve met one of my heroes and they’ve exceeded my expectations.”
Monty Franklin’s Yeah, Nah Tour is at Enmore Theatre on November 7.
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