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Summary for: Comedy as a home away from home: Viral Australian comedian Monty Franklin hits PragueAustralian comedian Monty Franklin, known for skewering the quirks of his homeland, will bring his first-ever Prague show to Phenomen Music Bar on Sept. 18, part of a sprawling 27-city European tour.
For the Czech capital’s growing expat scene, Franklin’s visit is more than just a night of laughs. The Melbourne-born comic has spent 12 years navigating America’s cultural minefields himself and has turned those missteps—like shouting “hip hip hooray” at the end of “happy birthday”—into viral social media videos and a thriving stand-up career. His humor offers a taste of home for Aussies abroad and a cheeky peek into culture Down Under for everyone else.
I'm an Australian expat living in Prague, and living here, I quickly learned the differences in humor. As an expat yourself living in America, what was it like integrating culturally there?
Absolutely every day there's something new. That's why I made these videos for my Instagram and it almost turned into a tutorial, helping people navigate how to understand Australians. Because there's these little things that we do and say, that we don't realize the rest of the world has no idea about. Like, in America, they don't sing "hip hip hooray" at the end of their birthday song. As an Australian you yell out 'hip hip' like an idiot, and then everyone looks at you, and you're like, 'oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was normal.'
I also found that Americans don't do Christmas bonbons. I think that's a Commonwealth thing. I brought an American friend over to Australia for their first Australian Christmas. They were just looking around at everyone wearing these colorful paper crowns, thinking, what is going on?
How is your comedy received by different nationalities? Are there some countries or nationalities which aren't as receptive to it?
We'll find out some of these new places! I think that most of my humor translates fairly well, because I'm not very polarizing or political or very specific, which is what all my comedic heroes did. Steve Martin always said, 'silly wins.' And I think it was Chris Rock who said, 'if you want to do comedy and be political, sure, but if you want to do sell stadiums, talk about relationships and dogs.'
Is a lot of your foreign audience finding you through your social media?
Yeah. I think the majority of the international audiences are coming because of these videos they see. But I've done stand up for 20 years. So I've crafted an art form that is vastly different from the social media that I do. And the biggest compliment I find is people come up afterwards and they say, 'oh, we didn't think you'd be that good. We didn't know what to expect.'
I appreciate the social media attention and stuff, but I do find that my skill set lies in the craft of stand up, rather than the silliness of pointing out Australian words to the world.
Are there Aussie expats that are coming to your shows for a sense of familiarity or comfort?
Definitely. I love that I'm drawing an Australian contingent around the world, and a lot of people will come and say, 'thank you, you give me a little bit of home each day on social media.' And I get it, because I've been in America for 12 years, and there is a simplicity and a certain part of the Australian narrative and culture that, when you're away from it, can be very nostalgic. And I make sure as part of my show, the songs that are playing as people walk in are all Australian. Like, it is a very Australian affair, and I like it. It's fun.
Monty FranklinI really love seeing where the Aussies are at and what they're doing in the world, because we are travellers. We tend to just go and explore. And I'm proud that we're usually well received everywhere we go.
What's an Aussie word or phrase you think everyone should adopt?
In America, they call it cotton candy, but we call it fairy floss. Also witch's hat. The rest of the world calls them traffic cones.
Have you visited Prague before? What do you expect?
I've never been to Prague. I'm looking forward to it. I think on my European tour, I'm doing about 27 shows, and probably 20 of them I've never even been to, so it's going to be an eye opening experience for me. I want to try the local cuisine everywhere, and the local beer.
Monty Franklin performs in Prague as part of his Is That Your Mate tour on Sept. 18 at Phenomen Music Bar. Tickets are available here.
