Frank Woodley
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Frank Woodley (born Frank Wood) is an Australian comedian who is notable for appearing alongside Colin Lane, forming the comedic duo, Lano and Woodley. They mostly performed comedy routines at various shows and comedy festivals, and also starred in their own TV series, The Adventures of Lano and Woodley.
In recent years, Woodley has performed his own stand-up comedy shows while remaining part of the double-act.
In 2005, Frank Woodley and Colin Lane released their debut album, a live recording called Lano & Woodley Sing Songs. Lano and Woodley play on the notion that the CD audience can not see the action that is taking place, and have to curb their visual performance.
Frank is a talented musician, artist, comedian and acrobat. All four virtues appear in his works with guitar playing and singing in the album Sing Songs, drawings on Lano and Woodley's book Housemeeting, acrobatics in the TV production The Adventures of Lano and Woodley, as well as comedic talents in all of the above works.
The two also released the album, Lano & Woodley Sing Songs which included such humorous tracks as Toupee
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[edit] Television appearances
Frank Woodley has appeared on several shows such as The Adventures of Lano and Woodley, Rove Live, Thank God You're Here, Spicks and Specks and Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. He also hosted a documentary about birds entitled "A Year On the Wing".
[edit] The Found Objects
In the mid-eighties Frank performed as part of a comedy trio named The Found Objects. Most of their work was stand-up comedy for various comedy festivals around Australia and then the world. They were picked up by ABC-TV's The Big Gig, which gave them the exposure that also boosted the careers of Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson (Doug Anthony All Stars), Glynn Nicholas, Jean Kittson, Wendy Harmer, Jimeoin, Judith Lucy and acts like the Tapdogs and Umbilical Brothers.
In 1992, the third member of the group, Scott Casley, made a decision to move to Alice Springs. After valiantly attempting to keep the rehearsals going, the group acknowledged that the distance made life too difficult, and they parted ways. Frank and Colin renamed themselves Lano & Woodley and continued their comedy work as a duo.
[edit] The Adventures of Lano and Woodley
In their television series, on stage and variously where ever else they perform, Woodley acts to appear stupider than Lano (or "Col" as Woodley calls him for short) and is bullied and hit frequently by Lano with blunt instruments. In the episode "I Love You Baby" (part I), Lano explains to Woodley the definition of a non-existent word "painfullier" in this way:
Lano-"The first man hits the other man painfully-" (smacks Woodley in the face) "-the first man then hits the other man again...this time more painfullier." (smacks Woodley over the head with a frying pan).
Examples of stupid quotes or announcements from Woodley, demonstrating his acting low intelligence in the T.V series include:
- "C'mon Col. You're making a mountain out of a... very big hill."
- "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will... only cause permanent psychological damage."
- "You had a caesarean? Really? What part of caesarea are you from?"
[edit] The Island
In 2004 - 2005 Lano and Woodley performed a comedy show tour across Australia called The Island. The show comprised of comedy sketches, songs and interaction with the audience, all based around them being stranded on a desert island. A stand out feature of this performance was that there was only one major prop used: A motorized, revolving platform, which was used as a stairway, aeroplane, palm tree and court room stand.
[edit] Quotes
- "I hate it when I get food in my sand!"
- "This sand is really crunchy...and did you know Thorpey says it's fully sick?"
- "We're gonna die to death!"
- "Ol' King Col - what a massive arsehole!"
- "I can feel it in my bodice!"
- "Where lowest prices are just the beginning but unfortunatly nutritional value isn't the ending" (Talking about Bunnings shadecloth)
- "With frongs like those, who needs enenemies?!" (again referring to the Bunnings shadecloth)
- "The Cave of Hurtiness."
- "Take that into your Backface."
[edit] Thank God You're Here
More recently, Frank Woodley has regularly appeared on Thank God You're Here , a comedy improvisation show where the improviser walks through a door into an unknown world. Woodley seems at ease with the daunting flow of the program, and often intimidates the prepared actors themselves by taking control of the scene.
[edit] Australia's Brainiest Comedian
In 2006, Frank Woodley appeared on "Australia's Brainiest Comedian", a quiz show hosted by Sandra Sully. Woodley was defeated by fellow comedian Peter Helliar.
[edit] Bruiser
Lano and Woodley wrote and performed a stage show called "Bruiser". The main plot of this play revolved around Frank and Col being upset about being scrawny and weak.
They ended up going to a gym when Frank questioned, "What's a 'Giem', Col?"
The other main character is Bruiser himself, a very bulky person who looks like he has been working out for years on end. Bruiser was played by both Col and Frank, and they would continue swapping roles throughout the show to include girlfriends, and even each other.
[edit] Quotes
- "I hate those flaps under your arms, Bruiser."
- "What the hell are you lifting?" / "Marshmallows, Col."
- "Oi, you - wipe my arse."
- "Oi. You, me, roun' the back now."
- "I don't like your hair, buddy."
- "I lifted 500 kilos. Pfffffff."
