Sometime late last millenium, when Peter Helliar was only a few years into his stand-up career, he closed his festival show by buzzing on his back.
Sometime late last millenium, when Peter Helliar was only a few years into his stand-up career, he closed his festival show by buzzing on his back. Whilst the context of it has faded from recall, what remains is the memory of how gloriously silly and uproariously funny it was.
“The buzzing was my Death Of A Bee routine,” he says from Los Angeles, where Helliar, who now also lists film actor and screenwriter on his CV (thanks to his rom-com I Love You Too) has been having “a few meetings”. “It did involve me lying on the ground buzzing and coughing and sputtering. I remember doing that routine on the first Comedy Festival Roadshow and Ross Noble kept daring me to make the death longer. He would time me with a stopwatch side stage. It got out to about four to five minutes of me just lying on the stage buzzing. It is one of those routines that comedians remember even moreso than audiences.”
Seen regularly on Before The Game, The Bounce, The Trophy Room, Helliar is now a regular fixture of television sports shows. Out of this has emerged his hugely popular character, Strauchanie, played as a somewhat deluded former Collingwood football player. “I thought he would be a funny part of Before The Game. I didn’t see him living outside of that,” admits Helliar. “But for him to win the AFL Media Player of the Year despite not being a player, to open the Brownlow one year, to do a spot at the Logies with Eddie, to team up with Mars and win an Advertising Award at Cannes and one in Spain, is incredible. The best thing has been playing in the EJ Legends games. One, it’s a dream for me and two, it’s great for Strauchanie’s fans to see him actually play.”
Given all this, it should come as no surprise that Helliar’s latest live show is about sport. Peter Helliar’s World of Balls (…And The Men And Women Who Like To Play With Them) will be a stand-up show, with a giant screen for photos. “So when I talk about The Black Salute in Mexico in 1968 I can show you. It’s important that people who know nothing about sport can come along and get into it and so far that has been the case,” says the father of three sons who, just like Dad, “love sport and came out as Collingwood supporters, thankfully”.
Peter Helliar performs Peter Helliar’s World Of Balls at The Forum Theatre Downstairs from April 5 – April 17. It’s at 7pm Tuesday – Saturday and 6pm on Sundays. Tickets are $25 – $35 and available through Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door.
