Performing at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival is a highlight for many Australian comedians.
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Wollongong comic Frenchy is no exception. But before he heads to Scotland to play gigs at the world's largest arts festival, the YouTube sensation is looking to fulfil another dream.
Frenchy gets that opportunity on Friday night when he performs his Live & Lanky show at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre.
"When my manager was booking all these shows for me I just said to him Wollongong and IPAC, that's all I care about. I'm excited, I can't wait," Frenchy said. "When I was growing up I used to watch all my favourite comedians there like Arj Barker and Will Anderson ... and I thought if I ever make it big, I want to perform at the IPAC."
The former high school substitute teacher and one-time employee of Jamberoo Recreation Park has definitely made it big.
Just ask his 153,000 plus YouTube subscribers and 105,000 Instagram followers who can't get enough of Frenchy's wicked sense of humour. His YouTube channel, SungaAttack, has led him to more than a million online fans and tens of millions of views. He also has more than 847,000 Facebook fans.
But nowadays Frenchy is also making an impact in the stand-up arena, having sold out shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival.
"I have have been doing stand-up on and off since 2008. It really only took off though after the videos, which was good because I didn't have to go back to teaching."
The videos Frenchy's referring to are his take on living in Wollongong. The initial video was so well received Frenchy kept on making videos about the Gong and posted them on his popular YouTube channel.
His online success is fast being replicated in the stand-up arena, with Frenchy to head to Scotland in August to perform at the popular Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
He is slated to do 26 shows in 27 nights - much to his chagrin.
"Edinburgh is going to be crazy. I don't know how I'm going to be able to do that because I hate doing shows when I'm hungover ... but I'm going to be there a lot of weekends and I feel it is kind of rude not drinking on the weekend. I know they love to drink in Scotland and I don't want to be rude to their culture."
But before then Frenchy is looking forward to entertaining his home crowd and to do so has enlisted some of his mates to join him on the IPAC stage on Friday night.
The Maze lead singer Zach Gervaise will perform on the night, as will Frenchy's YouTube characters Bazza and Wazza.
"Because I grew up in Wollongong I pretty much could throw all my jokes and stories away and just do Wollongong humour for an hour and rip into some of the local night clubs. But I'm not going to do that I don't think," Frenchy said.
"The show is pretty much like my videos but live and better, and lankier. A lot lankier, with more nudity and probably some songs."
FRENCHY: LIVE & LANKY
- Friday:
- Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
- Tickets: ipac.org.au or 42245999.