Wil Anderson, queen of the gays

Wil Anderson should be on cloud nine. At this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, his show Wilful Misconduct — praised by critics as his sharpest work yet — won the festival’s people’s choice award.

Typical comedian that he is though, he sees the glass as half-empty.

“You can look at it two ways. Somebody said to me, ‘At your 15th year at the festival, isn’t it great that people think you’re doing your best work yet?’”, Anderson told Sydney Star Observer.

But I assume it means everyone used to think I was shit — it’s taken me 15 years to figure out how to do this properly.”

Anderson’s Comedy Festival triumph also coincided with a bitter defeat. He lost out on this year’s Gold Logie to Ray Meagher, aka Home and Away’s Alf ‘Flamin’ Mongrel’ Stewart.

“Honestly, I think winning the Gold Logie would’ve damaged my comedy career. There’s no way to convince people you’re still edgy when you’ve won a Gold Logie, unless you hollow it out on stage and turn it into a bong,” he laughed.

Anderson will bring Wilful Misconduct to Sydney on July 1 for a month-long residency at the Comedy Store, and he gave us a taste of the material that earned him such a rapturous reception in Melbourne.

“The major theme of the show is that the world is too overcrowded and it’s time for a cull of humanity. My solution is to let morons die.

“You know when you get a new pair of sneakers and they come with that little package of chemicals that says ‘do not eat’? If you know someone who wants to eat it, let them. One less moron to be pissing in the shallow end of our gene pool.”

Once he’s finished dissing dessicant-chewing dimwits, Anderson has another commitment to fulfil — he’ll host the next Community Action Against Homophobia rally on August 14, cementing his reputation as one of our most vocal straight allies.

“One of the topics I’ve talked about most in all of my shows is gay marriage and homophobia. Somebody said to me this year, ‘Why do you keep going on about it?’. I said, ‘Once they let gay people get married, I’ll stop talking about it.’

“If I have to do a few jokes at the rally it won’t be a problem, because luckily I have plenty of material on this topic!”

Despite following in the intimidating footsteps of Gandalf himself — Sir Ian McKellen, who appeared at the previous rally — Anderson said he was feeling confident about his involvement in the cause.

“I’m assuming that thanks to my involvement, gay marriage will instantly be made legal and there’ll be no discrimination against homosexuals from that day forth.”

And then we’ll elect you our reigning queen?

“Exactly. What next?”

info: Wil Anderson plays the Comedy Store from July 1-26. Visit www.comedystore.com.au