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NEWS & REVIEWS
THE GRUEN TRANSFER - HIGHEST RATING ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
THE GRUEN TRANSFER made its TV premiere last night and attracted over 1.287 million people nationally, making it the highest-rating launch for an entertainment program on ABC1 since 1991, when people meter data was introduced, beating Kath & Kim’s (1.146) debut in May 2002. The show, hosted by Wil Anderson and produced by Zapruder’s Other Films, was watched by 421,000 (Sydney), 402,000 (Melbourne), 205,000 (Brisbane), 95,000 (Adelaide) and 164,000 (Perth).
Wil Anderson said today; “I’m just glad people watched the ads and didn’t use them as an opportunity to go to the toilet or get a biscuit”.
-END-
THE GRUEN TRANSFER - The ABC of Advertising
Premieres on Wednesday, May 28 at 9pm on ABC1
 The Gruen Transfer is a fast, funny show about advertising that will make you look differently at the constructed world around you.
Hosted by Wil Anderson. It’s not an expose. It’s not a satire. It’s about truth in advertising. Finally.
We used to know what advertising was. It was that stuff in the margins, in the ad breaks. But in recent years, it has begun colonising every space it can. US ad wizard Mark Fenske, the guy behind the Nike campaigns, calls advertising “maybe the most powerful art form on Earth”. And the Earth ain’t the end of it. Not so long ago, Pizza Hut stamped its logo on a rocket to the moon. Earlier this year, Doritos announced it would beam its ads into space.
Ogilvy & Mather now practises what it calls “360 degree branding”, the idea that we, the consumers, should encounter the brand everywhere we turn in the course of our day. Some agencies now routinely use hypnosis and MRI scanning to try and find out what we want.
We all think we’re immune to advertising, that we’re smarter than the marketers, but can you honestly say you know why you buy one brand of detergent and not another? As you walk the aisles of the supermarket, how many of the purchasing choices you make are consciously your own? And if you can be persuaded, without realising, to buy the orange dishwashing liquid, what else can you be persuaded to do? Advertising: you know you’re soaking in it.
Which is where The Gruen Transfercomes in. Each week, Wil Anderson is joined by some of the best and brightest minds of the advertising industry, experts prepared to share the ideas and insights that drive them.
Guests on the program face a series of challenges designed to show the thought processes – and, often, the brilliance - of advertising, as well as its understanding of who we are and what we want. Each week we examine the tactics used to sell a particular product: cars or chocolate or cleansers. In a segment called ‘The Pitch’, agencies compete to fulfill an impossible brief (‘Make Brendan Nelson a winner’, for example). Elsewhere, ‘Consumer’s Revenge’ allows our audience to participate in the show by making their own ads with tools we provide on our website.
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BeWILdered- A Token Event
BeWILdered:
i) completely puzzled or confused; perplexed
ii) a brand-new hour of passionate, rapid-fire stand-up about truth and lies from Australia’s most prolific comedian.
Australia’s most passionate and prolific comedian is back at the Sydney Opera House for four weeks this March, premiering his brand-new show BeWILdered. In June last year Wil comprehensively sold out his season of the critically acclaimed Wil of God at the Opera House.
“the rock star of Australian comedy… Highly recommended.” The Age (2007)
“funnier and edgier than ever...unconventional and hard-hitting, if you only see one comedy show this year, this has got to be it” Courier Mail (2007)
Wil is rare in the world of stand-up comedy in that year after year his shows keep getting sharper, edgier and most importantly - funnier (well, either that or it’s taken him a really long time to work out what he’s doing).
In 2006 he performed his show Wil Communication to over 40,000 people in Australia, Montreal and Edinburgh where the critics had this to say: "Like Adam Hills on speed, Australian comedian Wil Anderson’s new show is brilliant... an hour in his company flies by all too quickly." The Stage. (UK) "  What a funny Aussie... there is enough material here to fill two hours, making the one he has sprint by. A higher laugh-per-minute rate than anyone I've seen before...'Ando' is a comic gem." Three Weeks (UK)
Wil has also earned a Perrier Best Newcomer nomination in Edinburgh and appeared on the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs gala three times. You might know him as "the bloke who sat in the middle" on the ABC's AFI-Award winning The Glass House or "the one who didn't know anything about maths" on the much loved Triple J Breakfast show.
He is also author of the book ‘Survival Of The Dumbest’ which has the proud honour of "being over 250 pages long without photos" and the host of the Wil and Lehmo Show weekdays on Triple M, which critics have referred to as being “on at the same time as Hamish and Andy.”
LISTING INFORMATION
Venue: Sydney Opera House, Playhouse
Dates: Tuesday 4 – Saturday 29 March, no show Wed 19 March
Time: Tue – Sat 7:30pm
Ticket Prices: Previews 4&5 March all tickets $29.50 Tues & Thu Full $35 Conc $32 Student Thursday $27.50 Fri & Sat all tickets $38
Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com or 9250 2777 or ticketek.com.au
MEDIA CONTACT:
Hannah Watkins
Ph: 02 9274 7222
M: 0411 362 727
E: hannah@token.com.au
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REVIEW:Wil of God
*** Review in the Courier Mail
Getting fired has done great things for Wil Anderson. In Brisbane performing his latest live comedy show, Wil of God, the former host of the ABC's controversially axed television program The Glass House is funnier and edgier than ever.
In contrast to highly strung shows of the past, Anderson is confident and commanding on stage.
Free of the audience expectations that came with hosting the popular television show and its domineering political humour, Anderson's show is based on his personal account of turning 33. After regaling hilarious stories about feeling old in nightclubs, getting lax on exercise and opting for nights in watching Buffy and eating Pringles, Anderson launches into a powerful and clever social commentary, cutting to the heart of many of the world's atrocities and hypocrisies.
It is Wil Anderson by far at his best. Unconventional and hard-hitting, if you only see one comedy show this year, this has got to be it. (Tonya Turner)
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REVIEW:Wil of God
"intelligent, professional and high-quality comedy – Wil of God is heavenly standup"
Check out the full review here
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Direct from sell out Melbourne Comedy Festival season to the Sydney Opera House
Wil Anderson – Wil of God
This year Wil asks the big question: If the world truly does have an intelligent design, why is everything so f***ed?
It’s yet another brand-new hour of stand-up from our nation’s most prolific comedian, and as usual it’s bound to run the gamet from tightly written beautifully constructed world-class stand-up and searing social commentary, to a whole bunch of dick jokes.
SYDNEY
Venue: Sydney Opera House, Play House, Bennelong Point
Dates: Tuesday 26th June - Saturday 14th July
Preview: Tuesday 26th June
Times: Tue - Sat 8pm
Bookings: 02 9250 777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com or Ticketek 132 849
Tickets: Preview $27.50; Student Thursdays $25; Fri & Sat Full $38 No Conc Avail; Tue-Thu Conc $30
SELLING FAST! NEW SHOWS ADDED!
SATURDAY 7 JULY, 9.45PM, FRIDAY 13th JULY, 9.45pm & SUNDAY 15th JULY, 7pm!
Book Today - 02 9250 777 www.sydneyoperahouse.com or Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au
EXTRA SHOW AT THE ENMORE
Saturday 11 August, 7.30pm
The Enmore, 130 Enmore Rd, Newtown
All Tickets: $38
Bookings: www.ticketek.com.au 132 849 or at the venue 9550 3666
On Sale Tuesday 10 July at 4pm
Read full Media Release Here...
The 2006 Glass House Awards For EksalinceTM
Wednesday November 29, 9:00pm
Tune in this Wednesday night and help crack 1 million viewers for THE LAST GLASS HOUSE EVER!!
On Wednesday, November 29, at the special time of 9pm, Wil Anderson, Corinne Grant, Dave Hughes & a host of their favourite reasonably special guests will celebrate the season finale with The 2006 Glass House Awards For EksalinceTM
In a one-hour, completely bias-free episode, Adam Spencer, Liz Ellis, Rhys Muldoon, Fiona O'Loughlin, Pinky Beecroft, Georgie Parker, Merv Hughes, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Arj Barker and more will honour the world's movers & shakers in science, religion, sport, entertainment and politics.
Will Kim Beazley's astonishing popularity make him even more of a winner? Can Big Brother's turkey-slappers bring home the bacon? Drunk monks, French headbutts, Kiwi couches - eksalince, eksalince, eksalinceTM!
And who will take home the most prestigious award, the Golden Cretin? Naomi Robson, Mel Gibson, Germaine Greer, the ABC Board - it's the most competitive field in years!
If you only watch one dodgy awards show this year, tape this one & watch it next year!
WIL ANDERSON'S - SURVIVAL OF THE DUMBEST
21 September 2006
 One of Australia's best loved and funniest comedians at his acerbic and hilarious best. A laugh-out-loud thigh-slapper from a comic genius.
"Did you know that in the last ten years, 31 Australians have died from watering the Christmas tree while the lights were still plugged in? And at least a couple of those were watering plastic trees. Now I don't want to seem callous, but to me that's not a tragedy - that's natural selection."
In SURVIVAL OF THE DUMBEST, Wil Anderson turns his sharp gaze and wicked wit to the stupid, strange and perplexing quandaries of popular culture. Wil spares no-one, not even himself, as he delivers an almighty forehead slap to the modern world. And let's face it: between TV, politics, oversexed sports stars, advertising and automatic phone-banking systems - there are a lot of foreheads that need one.
Wil Anderson caused cornflake snorting incidents as a breakfast announcer on Triple J, hosts ABC TV's ever-popular The Glass House and continues to thrill audiences at just about every comedy festival known to man. Now Wil has set down some of his funniest rants and observations in this book. Let's just hope there are enough people left who can read.
For more info check out http://www.randomhouse.com.au
I Am The Wilrus - Edinburgh Fringe
**** Review in the List
What's with the show title, I Am the Wilrus? It's not much more than a rather dodgy pun, of course but it somehow sums up the eccentric style of Australian comedian Wil Anderson, who - like the song itself - seems to flit from one random association to the next, yet leaves you feeling strangely satisfied by the end.
Of course, such seemingly effortless freeform riffing is always meticulously prepared, but Anderson papers over the cracks with a cheerful, goofy, energetic presence. A star of television and radio in his homeland, he plays to the large amount of his countrymen and women who have come to see him, although the indigenous cracks aren't enough to alienate non-Aussies. Australian humour, he says, is a scrawled 'I fucked your mother' on a toilet door, with 'dad, you're drunk, please go home' added below.
Yet, matey early riffs on his country and childhood subtly win the crowd over, so when Anderson tackles subjects like religion and racism - often somewhat bluntly - in the same amiable style, he's already won our trust. It's a sharp and pacey torrent of jokes, but delivered with a skill that's worth savouring. (David Pollock)
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Wil sells The Big Issue!
As part of the 10th Anniversary Celebrations Wil Anderson volunteered as a Big Issue Vendor on the streets of Sydney on July 5. While "lick the cover and get high" and "show it at work and get a promotion" aren't the normal sales lines, Wil managed to sell 37 magazines in his 45 minute stint. Check out the pics:
   
ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST COMEDY STARS
Wil Anderson - I Am The Wilrus
3-28 AUGUST 9.30pm (no show Mon 14 Aug)
COW BARN, REID HALL, BRISTO SQUARE
BOOKINGS: 0870 745 3083 or www.underbelly.co.uk
TICKETS: £10.50/£8.50, MON-THU £9.50/£8.50
PREVIEWS: THU 3 & FRI 4 AUG ALL TIX £5
On his last visit to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999, Wil Anderson was nominated for the Perrier Newcomer Award. In an amazingly canny marketing move to cash-in on the hype he hasn't been back since.
That's mostly because he was busy back home becoming one of Australia's biggest comedy stars selling out stand-up shows from Melbourne to Montreal.
As a stand-up comedian Wil is truly prolific, generating totally new, sharply written shows every year since 1997.
Even more amazingly he has done this while getting up - for five years - at a time most people consider "last night" to host Australia's most listened to breakfast radio show (Triple J), and since 2001 has been the host of the AFI award-winning TV comedy/panel show The Glass House for ABC-TV.
He is also a popular columnist in Australia's highest selling newspaper, and is about to publish his first book. Not too bad for a bloke who says he got into comedy through a "lack of other skills".
OK, we get it, he's done some stuff, but what's his stand-up like? Well it's a densely written, high-speed ride though one of the most wonderful comedic imaginations in the country.
Politics, pop and the banal come together delivered with more conviction and enthusiasm that any man's vocal chords can take.
"Goofy, giggly, hyper stand-up superbabble… go and see Wil he is very funny" The Scotsman.
"Wound up tighter than a spring and barely pausing for breath during his one-hour set, Wil Anderson is manic, likeable, passionate..." The Age, Melbourne
"His best ever show round these parts...a riot for those in attendance. Anderson is, without doubt, one of the nation's finest comedic talents" Adelaide Advertiser
"Anderson is the eternal naughty boy you can't help liking" The Australian
"Anderson's mind is like a grand prix car, travelling at marvellous speed...Very funny" Sydney Morning Herald.
For All Media Enquiries please contact:
Tracey Carson Ph. +612 9540 4145 or UK Mobile: 07956 067 525 Email: tracey.carson@bigpond.com
or Underbelly Press Office: 0870 745 3078
Kill Wil, Canberra - City News Review
Thursday 2 June 2005
Click here...
Kill Wil, Brisbane - Time Off Review
June 2005
Wil Anderson begins tonight's entertainment and he certainly comes out firing, insulting virtually every person in the front row before a single joke is told. Resplendent in leather jacket, white thongs and a vintage Axl Rose T-shirt, Anderson's delight at being gifted a group of five likely lads - all 17, dressed in the latest "non-conformist" uniform - is palpable. "Where's the girls?" he asks. "Off fucking the Broncos!" and the tone of the night is set. Touching on any number of reasons why "Bogans shouldn't fuck", Anderson engages a generation that uses expletives less to shock than express emotion, but there's still something exhilarating about a truly skilled potty-mouth. Not that swearing's all he's good for: Anderson also does an extraordinary line in lengthy asides. In fact, one could easily believe the entire show (book-ended and sub-divided as it is by a yarn about a sniffer dog at Sydney airport) is actually one long aside. The illusion is reduced only by the occasional obviously scripted joke that sticks out by simple virtue of being somewhat less outrageous than Anderson's manic super-paced freestyle schtick. A strong physical aspect to the performance is the icing on a very tasty cake. His self-deprecatingly meek "vegetarian round of applause" receives hoots of appreciation, while the incongruence between waving one's hands in the air and declaring a state of indifference brings belly-laughs whenever the coded action is unleashed. Julian Porter
Kill Wil - National Tour
Tuesday 1 February 2005
Wil Anderson no longer gets up at four o'clock in the morning to do Triple J Breakfast. That is both the first sentence of this media release and a mantra the Wil has written above his bathroom mirror to remind himself of this most wondrous of facts. Don't get us wrong - it was great, but it was early.
Wil is continuing to hold down the host's gig on The Glass House alongside Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes. The Glass House has moved to a prime slot at 9.30 on Wednesday nights.
As a stand-up comedian Wil is truly prolific, generating totally new, sharply written shows every year since 1997. In 2004 Wil's show Licence to Wil saw a comedian at the height of his talents. The Melbourne Age in fact proclaimed him to be '..past-paced, energetic, informative, entertaining and hilarious...a must see'.
In 2005 he has more time on his hands and will be a hell of lot less tired, which has been him the opportunity to spend this year doing what he loves most - touring his stand-up. From Kalgoorlie to Cairns the Kill Wil national tour will see one of Australia's most popular and distinctive stand-up comedians take in every major capital city and plenty of places in between.
As for the title, it means nothing. It is just another in a long line of 'Wil' based puns. The show itself will be the usual mix of up to the minute chat on pop, politics and anything else that finds its way into Wil's head this year.
'Anderson's mind is like a grand prix car, traveling at marvelous speed... Very funny' (Sydney Morning Herald)
'Wound up tighter than a spring and barely pausing for breath during his one-hour set, Wil Anderson is manic, likeable, passionate...' (The Age)
Thursday 25 November 2004
Wil Anderson & Adam Spencer hang up their headphones after five years together co- hosting the Triple J Breakfast program with a final show broadcast live from Sydney University on Friday 26 November. The OB will feature performances from The Cops, Gerling & Frenzel Rhomb. Wil's plans post Triple J include much sleeping in & (among heaps of other exciting stuff) a national tour in 2005. Check this site regularly & add your name to Wil's email list to make sure you are first to hear all the details.
END OF AN EARACHE
Tuesday 17 August 2004
At the end of 2004, Adam Spencer and Wil Anderson will be clocking off from the triple j Breakfast shift for the final time.
After 5 years behind the mic together, both breakfast radio superstars have decided to hit the snooze button and sleep in.
Wil joined Adam on the Breakfast Show in early 2000, and the chemistry between them was immediately apparent. Their time together has proven to be extremely fruitful for triple j, with the pair accumulating a devout following of Breakfast Show believers.
Adam said "Leaving such an awesome place, and such an incredible job is not an easy decision. But if you'd really like to discuss it, leave me your home phone number and I'll call you at 4.15am tomorrow....and the day after...and the day after that....."
Wil commented "Working at triple j has without doubt been the best job I have ever had, and don't let the fact that it's the only job I've ever held down in any way detract from that. I intend to spend the rest of the year making the funniest radio we have ever done (plus stealing heaps of stationery)"
Station Manager Linda Bracken said "We're sad to see Adam and Wil leave next year, but glad we've had the benefit of their unique humour and intelligence on the radio for as long as we have."
The boys will be undertaking a national farewell tour of live stand-up together called "The Last Time", trekking around the country throughout October and November.
Source: Media Release, Triple J Marketing
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