Comedy review: Heath Franklin’s Chopper in a hard bastard’s guide to lifeUnderbelly BRISTO SQUARE (venue 300)

As HAPPENS with most men, when they get older it is difficult for them to remain as hard as they did when young. Franklin’s cult Australian character, Chopper, seems positively mellow this time around.

RATING: * * *

Of course, he is never going to go completely soft, but there is a fair old amount of jollity about Bluetooth, cocktails with dodgy names and dubstep before Chopper really starts to get hard. He hates the Olympics, has given up racism and has no kids. His reasons are brilliantly funny and quintessential Chopper, and he still has a fabulous bank of appalling similes. Best of all, he has written the pilot for a TV show. Look out, Jim Jefferies, you are not the only Aussie with your sights on sitcom fame.

Chopper’s onstage pilot is a masterpiece of misogyny and swearing. Sit near the front, ladies, and you could end up in an onstage “skankfight”. The man also gives us a masterclass in how to treat those whose bladders and brains are equally underdeveloped and fail to last 50 minutes without a break.

Until 19 August