Youtube is a magical place; a launch pad for the famous and notorious alike. From Bieber to the Weeknd, it’s brought us some of our biggest names, and an endless clutter of funny cats.
Somewhere, among all of those videos, you might have stumbled upon one channel in particular: SungaAttack, Ben ‘Frenchy’ French’s contribution to Youtube. It’s a collection of blue humour, sketches and musical parodies with more than 180,000 subscribers. Now, the ‘lanky guy from Wollongong’ is taking his Live & Lanky stand up tour around Australia.
OutInCanberra caught up with Frenchy in the lead up to his Canberra show.
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“I’ve been doing standup since 2008. It was my first passion. It never really went anywhere until I did the videos. Before, I was doing five minute spots to an audience of 3 people. Now I’m filling out a couple hundred seats with each show, which is awesome fun.”
Frenchy’s videos all feature a pretty consistent supporting cast of his mates as well, and while he admits he’d love to bring them all on tour with him, he isn’t quite at the entourage stage yet. That said, Zack Gervais, a major musical feature in Frenchy’s videos is a regular fixture on stage.
“He’s epic. He’s so good. I write the chords and the lyrics and Zack provides the voice. Generally I write the songs, and I get who ever I can to make them sound good. I’m getting there. When I was in Edinburgh I played the guitar and sang by myself. I could do the whole show just standup, but I love doing songs, so I usually do a good 15 minutes of songs at least.”
Of course, at the heart of the Frenchy’s act, and his videos, is the no holds barred blue humour that’s won him fans all over Australia. However, as he sets his sights overseas (with Edinburgh having been a perfect test run), it’s meant a couple of tweaks to his act.
“UK audiences do not like my crude stuff as much as Australian audiences, which I do not like. I love the filthy jokes… but I’ve had to take out a few stories. The first few shows I did over there I’d just get these kind of awkward silences, and I’d be looking at them like, ‘That’s gold! How do you not know that’s gold?’ and I’d wish I was back in Australia. Now I’ve tweaked it enough so it translates.”
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You can catch Frenchy on his Live and Lanky tour in Canberra on Friday 20 November at the UC Refectory, and if Frenchy has any say in it, kick on for the, “after party at Mooseheads then Questacon!”
