Comedian Monty Franklin makes Aspen debut

Thursday evening, Australian-born comedian Monty Franklin comes to Aspen for the first time as a headliner at Wheeler Opera House.

Franklin initially broke into comedy, attracted by its storytelling capacity. His uncle was a movie director, and he grew up around other storytellers. At age 20, he tried comedy, and though it terrified him, he enjoyed its humorous and engaging aspects.

Twelve years ago, he moved to Los Angeles. As much as he loves his native land, the population didn’t support his expansive vision. Now, he’s living the American dream — literally.

“You can have more control over your career rather than being pigeonholed and having to follow the norms that have to be in other places because populations are so small and things are scarce. Here, there’s so much. I know it’s a cliché, but there really is opportunity everywhere,” he said.

He revolves his comedy around his life experience and perspective, including the marriage and divorce he’s gone through since coming to the States. During last year’s worldwide tour, a plethora of audience members commented on how they appreciated his depth and vulnerability about issues of love, loss, and childhood difficulties.

“If people follow my Instagram, it’s rather silly and just talks about Australian words and stuff like that, but my show is actually quite introspective and quite deep and hits another level of people’s attention rather than just surface-level stuff. I’m proud of that part — that it strikes a chord with people in a different way,” he said. “It’s stuff we all go through as human beings, but bringing that into the light in a humorous fashion helps people deal with their own stuff, as well.”

His videos about the perils of being an Australian living in the U.S. (such as shouting “hip, hip hooray” after the birthday song as opposed to just standing their awkwardly) have garnered more than one billion views. He appeared on episode 1,794 of “The Joe Rogan Experience” and currently appears in Netflix’s “Real Rob.” In addition to his own tours that take him through the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia, he has opened for Rob Schneider, Joe Rogan, and John Cleese.

“I’ve been lucky enough to almost have a father-son relationship with these guys,” he said. “It’s been a pretty exciting part of my life that I get to have conversations with these men that I respect.”

This year, he’ll return to Australia to star in his first feature film, which he co-wrote with Schneider and Cleese, called “The Great Emu War.” Set in 1932, it tells the saga about how the Australian government went to war with the large, flightless birds and lost.

“The emus were too fast. They ran circles around our army and made us look foolish,” he said. “It’s very English-style humor; it’s very dry humor. I’m very proud of what we’ve written. It’s heartfelt — it’s almost a love letter to Australia. What I wanted to do is make another ‘Crocodile Dundee’ for the world to embrace and fall in love with again because the Australian culture is very unique.”

He’s also starting out the year with another thing he’s always wanted to do: Visit Aspen.