So anyway, here are some answers to Not So Frequently Asked questions that people have sent in....
Where are you from? I grew up on a road called Anderson's Road, Denison (country Victoria, just outside the town of Heyfield population 2000, home of the Heyfield Timber Festival), which was named after my grandfather who built the road. My Dad, Graeme is a dairy farmer and has moved about 500 metres down the road in 60 years. People often ask if my parents are proud of my career choice, to be perfectly honest they are just proud I'm not married to my own sister. (Well we dated, but it didn't work out.)
How did you get started? Mostly lack of other skills. I had always had two major requirements in any job I wanted, indoor work with no heavy lifting. I used to be a journalist for a couple of years in the Canberra Press Gallery, but they didn't let me swear enough. (And Laurie Oakes kept eating all my Pringles.) The great thing about stand-up is I can also drink at work, which they don't let you do it you are a pilot.
Do you have any qualifications? Well you don't really need any to be a comedian. It's not like you have to take Set-Ups 101, or Punchlines For Dummies at the Humourversity or School of Hard Knock Knocks. I did graduate first in my journalism course at University, which I like to think of as one of the most wasted degrees of all time. (Although in defence of my time at Uni I did learn how to make a bong out of an orange.) For anyone using this information for a school assignment, I studied at the University of Canberra, which used to be called Canberra University until they realised the Canberra University Netball Team had a really unfortunate acronym. (As did the ANU Students.)
Where do you get your ideas from? Mostly I find really good young comedians, and then cut their brake cables and steal their material. Also, Christmas Bon-Bons are an excellent source of jokes. (And easy to assemble prizes.)
I missed your show when you were in my town, how often do you tour? Now that I have given up the breakfast radio to concentrate on my stand-up my aim for the next few years is to produce a brand-new show each hear, with material that I haven't used on the tele or radio, and tour it as extensively as possible. This means hopefully (unless you live in a real shit-hole at the arse-end of the earth) I will visit somewhere near you once a year with a whole bunch of brand-new jokes. Keep your eye on the 'Tours' page for details. I particularly like touring to the regional areas of Australia, as I find the crowds have a nice mix of 'Wow, thanks for coming' and 'Wow, thank god you're not John Williamson' so I will be trying to get out to even more regional dates next year. Apart from my full-length stage show, I sometimes do other gigs - like club shows, charity events, muck about shows with other comics and trialing new material - every now and then, this gigs are rarely advertised so join my mailing list to be kept up to date.
What day do you film the Glass House and how do I get tickets? Due to ABC budgetary restraints we film two episodes of the show every second Tuesday, which sometimes can cause problems with topicality, including the famous never aired episode on September 13 that would have started with me saying: 'It's been a big week, how about those Wiggles!'. For ticket details, and anything else you want to know about the show go to www.abc.net.au/glasshouse.
Who are your favourite comedians? My favourite comedian of all-time is without a doubt Billy Connolly. I'm also a massive fan of Bill Hicks, Dave Hughes, Ross Noble, Doug Stanhope, Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais, George Carlin, Mitch Hedberg, Dylan Moran, Jason Byrne, Stewart Lee, Justin Hamilton, Flight of the Conchords, Tripod, Bill Cosby, Dame Edna (seriously still as funny today as anyone), Adam Hills, Bob Newhart, Judith Lucy, Jon Stewart, Bill Bailey, Sue-Anne Post, Dane Cook, Harland Williams, Greg Fleet, Anthony Morgan, Rich Hall, Tommy Tiernan, Peter Helliar, Carl Barron, Akmahl Saleh & Greg Proops just to name a few off the top of my head.
Where did you get your Axl Rose t-shirt? For those to young to remember, Axl Rose was the lead singer of a band called Guns 'N Roses. (His name is also an anagram for Oral Sex.) He was also the first man to make red hair look sexy, and paved the way for David Caruso and Kerry O'Brien to be considered sexy despite having ginger pubes. His new album Chinese Democracy was due out in 2000, and if it isn't out by 2010 I'm calling my show that instead. I got my t-shirt at a shop called Sugar Jones on Chapel St in Melbourne. (I also got my girlfriend a pair of G'N'R undies.)
Are you really a vegetarian? No I eat fish and seafood, so technically I'm a vegaquarian. (Or as my hard-core vegetarian friends call me a fish-and-chip-o-crite.) Although I am trying to give up eating fish too, but I kind of think that little annoying shit Nemo deserves it.
What's with only the one 'l' in Wil? Mostly laziness. Just think of all the time I have saved not having to write that second 'l' which I have then wasted sitting on the couch watching Buffy. Also when people pronounce my name I can never tell if they are using one 'l' or two. Plus my real name is actually William, so if I use Wil I have a whole Liam left over, two names for the price of one. Whereas, if I went with Will I would have only had Iam - which just looks like I can't spell Ian.
Why do you paint your nails black? Actually I have never painted my nails black, although I have done blue and purple which apparently both look black on the tele. (Wow, what a revelation, glad you kept reading now instead of looking up pictures of Paris Hilton.) Mostly I favour gold nail-polish, in honour of Thorpey's medals, Rove's Logies and Mr T's 'bling'. Why do I do it? Mostly because it makes me feel pretty!
Click here to send me a question, and I will answer them, it's that easy.