When it comes to explaining why you're late to an interview, Drew Forsythe from The Wharf Revue has one of the best.

"I was up in the recording studio, recording farts for one of our scenes," Forsythe admits.

"We're doing a Goon Show piece that covers the purge of the ABC. The Goons had some wonderful sound effects in their show so we're busy trying to replicate them."

The latest show marks The Wharf Revue's 15th anniversary. These days, Forsythe says the shows sell out before the tour starts, but it wasn't quite so successful in the early days.

"The first one we did was a late-night show that was on the set of a production I was in at the time," Forsythe says.

"We would go on at about 11 o'clock at night. The idea was that it would be a late-night revue that people would come to after they'd been out having drinks or seeing another show.

"It went well but it could have gone better because most people were too busy getting home to go to sleep at that time of night."

The 2015 show features a mix of the new and the old - obviously the fart noises are a new addition.

"With this show we get to look back at some of the things we've done in the past and we try to string them together in a documentary style," he says.

"Some of it is old material and it's interesting looking back at that to see how little things have changed."

Some of the characters making an appearance are Clive Palmer, Jacqui Lambie and Christopher Pyne. There was a piece written around Bronwyn Bishop but when she got dumped, they had to let her go.

Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten also misses out this year: "We've done Bill Shorten in the past - we've done him as Blinky Bill, we've done him as Hamlet procrastinating.

"We haven't actually done him this time. I think the reason is some people are hard to do, and he's hard to do. I think the reason for that is, I'm afraid he's a bit bland."

When it comes to creating the show the writers are all heavy readers of the newspapers, looking for material. In fact, Forsythe admits he tends to view a political stuff-up as great material for the show rather than worrying about what it means for the country.

He says being up to speed politically can be a help for an audience, but it's not essential.

"It does help if you're up to date with the politics and you have your favourites and your dislikes," he says. "But we hope even if you're not that au fait with what's happening there's enough jokes and there's enough singing and dancing."