US comedian Tom Rhodes is ready for any heckling at Wollongong's IPAC

Rhodes is in the country touring with the Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase and performing stand-up at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday night.

To illustrate our “fun-loving” nature he gave the example of a jovial jibe during a set from two guitarists at the Sydney Guitar Festival last week.

“I’m not a fan of classical guitar but I was then, at that moment, because these guys were spellbinding. Just what they were doing with their fingers and the synchronicity of working together was really amazing, and somebody heckled them,” Rhodes laughed.

“‘You call that Tchaikovsky?’ [they yelled].”

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Comments from audiences Down Under are conducted in a “nice way” according to Rhodes, who said the nastiest comments came from the English.

He lived in Europe for five years – during George Bush’s reign as US president and the second Gulf War – and said he’d constantly get heckled over politics and Iraq, a war he had nothing to do with.

“The only people I’ve heard English people speak worse of than Americans are Australians,” Rhodes chuckled.

“It was always the same stupid jokes – it’s the ‘convict’ and ‘backpacker’ and ‘don’t you belong behind the bar’.”

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If you do decide to hurl verbal abuse at the star you are likely to be severely put back in your place by wit.

“I don’t invite heckling … but I’m certainly a ruthless gun-slinger and can put a bullet in the heart of anyone who yells out.”

Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wednesday September 6. Tickets via www.merrigong.com.au 

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