An Austinmer teacher-turned comedian who rose to YouTube fame poking fun at the “sh-t you’ll never hear in Wollongong” is poised for a homecoming show.
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Ben “Frenchy” French’s brand of blue collar humour has found more than 1.5 million social media followers and 200 million views in the three years since he got his first taste of viral video.
He draws on past relationships, Tinder encounters, bloke culture and time spent in nightclubs and schools for much of his often adults-only material, including the three years he spent shaping the region’s young minds.
Frenchy worked as a substitute teacher at Keira High and Warilla, Corrimal, Bulli and Woonona high schools before one of his videos earned him a career-ending rebuke from the Board of Studies.
!["[Former] students come to my shows all the time. It makes my night when they do." Picture: supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bEHa392pg8uWfDH5RxA6T9/6c6024c8-20aa-4e23-a84a-ade0985e66e7.jpg/r0_770_3744_3064_w576_h298_fmax.webp "\"[Former] students come to my shows all the time. It makes my night when they do.\" Picture: supplied")
“I filmed it in the school with the students, I got principal permission and got all the students to sign forms,” he told the Mercury. “The problem was, a couple of the students forged the forms and when the parents complained the principal claimed she didn’t have any knowledge of it.
“I got a massive email from the Board of Studies. By that time I could live off my stand-up. I had about 50 YouTube videos all the students knew about and it was probably time to hang my boots up.
“It’s quite hard getting respect when your students have seen you pretend to be a slug, sliding up and down the beach.”
Frenchy, now of Darlinghurst, will appear at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on Thursday in his one-man stand-up show, World’s Worst Adult.
The show is expected to draw out online fans and an entourage of 20-something friends and collaborators. But the crowd is unlikely to include the 26-year-old comic’s mother and father, a social worker and a GP, respectively.
“They’re very polite and good Christian people; they don’t really swear or drink and they’re not really too fond of my style of comedy,” Frenchy said. “My parents cannot sit through my videos ...They’re just happy I’m not teaching any more.”
Thursday’s show starts 8pm. Tickets: $29. Visit merrigong.com.au for full details.
