Heath Franklin’s Chopper - GOLD @ The Dalrymple Hotel, Oct 30 2026

Bursting onto the stage to the unmistakable opening strains of AC/DC’s Back in Black, Heath Franklin wasted no time reintroducing Townsville to his most enduring creation: Chopper. Dark sunglasses, trademark moustache and an attitude dialled firmly towards the confrontational, Franklin was back to celebrate 20 years of impersonating Australia’s most infamous underworld figure.

Two years after bringing his Not Here to F#ck Spiders tour to Townsville, Franklin returned to a responsive Dalrymple Hotel crowd with GOLD, a retrospective featuring some of the best material from his two decades performing as Chopper. And for anyone unfamiliar with the character, it did not take long to establish one of the evening’s guiding principles: harden the f#ck up.

Fond of four-letter words and gloriously unimpressed by the sensitivities of contemporary life, Chopper launched into a scathing critique of just how soft modern society has become. Much of the comedy came from contrasting the supposed stoicism of the past with the anxieties, indulgences and absurdities of the present.

Modern diets and food allergies came under fire, as did the supposed therapeutic benefits of adult colouring books. Even the classic male midlife crisis has apparently lost its edge. Where once it meant buying an impractical sports car, Chopper observed that today’s middle-aged man is more likely to squeeze himself into Lycra and buy an expensive pushbike.

Children’s television was another target, with Bluey subjected to Chopper’s characteristically warped scrutiny of contemporary expectations around diversity and representation. Free-range chickens were similarly reimagined as neurotic creatures overwhelmed by the very freedom they had supposedly been craving. Franklin’s physical re-enactment of their anxiety transformed a clever observation into one of the routine’s most memorable visual gags.

Airports and air travel provided more fertile territory. Reflecting on how dramatically flying has changed since 9/11, Chopper explored the impossibility of making bomb jokes in airports before questioning why, after all this time, humanity continues to persist with aeroplanes at all. His proposed solution was wonderfully Chopper-esque: bring back the blimp.

Then there was Bunnings, and more specifically its staff, whose supposed combination of helpfulness and cluelessness provided Franklin with another opportunity to turn a familiar Australian experience into an extended comic assault.

Towards the end of the show, Franklin invited the audience to nominate favourite routines he might have overlooked during his anniversary retrospective. It was a move that briefly loosened the structure and allowed some spontaneous interaction with the Townsville crowd. After congratulating us for not heckling him like the “wiseguys” he encounters elsewhere, he good-humouredly shut down the banter before it had any chance of taking over the show.

When one audience member pointed out his shaking hand, Franklin blamed too much caffeine and promised to lay off it before the following night’s Cairns performance, apologising in advance if he consequently shuffled onto stage “like a slug”.

Another audience request prompted what Chopper calls his “weather report”, a rapid-fire trip around Australia in which the forecast is largely irrelevant and the real objective is finding something insulting to say about every location. It proved an ideal showcase for the character: aggressive, ridiculous and strangely affectionate at the same time.

What continues to set Franklin apart is his ability to transform everyday experiences into consistently engaging comedy. His delivery remains polished, assured and remarkably controlled, with one routine flowing effortlessly into the next. Rather than relying solely on traditional joke-and-punchline structures, much of the humour emerges through observations, frustrations, physical comedy and seemingly casual tangents, all filtered through Chopper’s distinctive voice and uniquely belligerent worldview.

After 20 years, the surprise is not simply that the character has endured, but that Franklin continues to find new absurdities for him to attack. Trends change, society changes and the things we worry about certainly change, but Chopper’s solution remains reassuringly uncomplicated.

Sometimes, apparently, we all just need to harden the f#ck up.