Tom Rhodes Smart Camp - 235 Wil Anderson

235 Wil Anderson

08/29/17 • 77 min

Hello from the other side of the planet!

This episode of Smart Camp comes to you from Sydney where I talk with charming Australian comedy superstar Wil Anderson. I first met Wil at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2000. Since then we have worked with each other in London, New York, Montreal and Los Angeles. His effervescent charm and comedic intelligence always delights me when we get to spend time together and this episode is packed with important knowledge that should be living in your brain. Wil and I discuss the championship boxing match of the century, when Jack Johnson became the first black heavy weight champion of the world in Sydney in 1908. You will learn where the term "Great White Hope" comes from and the aftermath of Jim Jeffries getting his ass beat in Reno. (Not the comedian Jim Jeffries). You will learn why there is no pride in genocide and the proper way to arrange statues in Sydney. Why are all Australians made of money and what did the Aboriginal people say when the first white English people to arrive asked them what they called kangaroos. Why should Australia Day be called Invasion Day? Learn why the Melbourne Demons should embrace full evil. Learn a brief history of Ben Cousins and why Ned Kelly's last words are tattooed to his stomach. Wil teaches me how he uses advertising and marketing as a sense to look at the world on his show "Gruen" that has been running for ten years on Australian television. Learn how by using your data companies know more about you than you do. Let us help you see that advertising is emotional pollution and how to remain happy in the modern world. What memorable clash did Wil have with Heath Ledger and what are Mick Jagger's best one liners? Embrace how charitable acts always come back to you and how owning your choices in life is the path to contentment. I know so many beautiful lunatics in the comedy world and it is a joy to be back in Australia and get to gab it up with the one and only Wil Anderson!

Hello from the other side of the planet!

Previous Episode

234 Playboy Laughs with Patty Farmer

Patty Farmer is an entertainment historian who has authored the new book 'Playboy Laughs' chronicling the history involving Playboy magazine and stand up comedy.

The recently deceased Dick Gregory got his big break performing at the Playboy club in Chicago and used to have to take the bus to get there because he was so broke when he started. For all the criticism that has fallen on Hugh Hefner for being sexist he doesn't get enough credit for breaking the color barrier in terms of hiring performers at his clubs and models for his magazine at a time when the United States was racially segregated. In this episode we talk about my own personal history with Playboy magazine and how the Playboy interviews were a very important part of my entertainment apprenticeship. We discuss the rise of George Carlin and Lenny Bruce who performed at the Playboy clubs and which entertainer who couldn't keep his hands to himself. This important period in American entertainment history and the history of American censorship is but a distant memory for those who remember and this is a conversation I was happy to capture for the Smart Camp audience. So put on your bunny ears and you fluffy slippers and find out why the Playboy empire was a crucial component in the history of American comedy. It is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Patty Farmer!

Next Episode

236 Mickey D

Mickey D is the only comedian I know of who has climbed Mount Everest.

I met Mickey while doing the Edinburgh festival several years ago and he personifies everything that I love about Australians. He is brash, ballsy, and good humored about even life's toughest circumstances. I sat down with him while I was in Sydney to delight the world with his perspective on life and capture his unconquerable Australian spirit. He is a comedian and a human being that I love and did I mention that he climbed Mount Everest? He is a unique comedy powerhouse and that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Mickey D!