By Ara Jansen
When James Schloeffel finally let his young son attend his Wankernomics show, the lad came armed with a pen and notepad. He then proceeded to dutifully tote up all the sweary and rude words and dad was later made to pay up for the swear jar back at home.
“There was no way around it,” says James. “He knew exactly how many there were.” The night cost the Melbourne comedian $24 – his son is not getting invited back in a hurry.
James – Chief Disruptor and Strategy Optimisation Evangelist – along with Customer Engagement Jedi Charles Firth are back as your favourite workplace tossers in the new Wankernomics comedy show.
The pair have had sold-out runs in Australia, the Edinburgh Fringe and in the UK over the last few years and are back sharing their subtle, obvious and obnoxious observations of less than OK workplace behaviour.
It all started with a run at Adelaide Fringe a few years ago when the pair realised they had stumbled onto something, because who hasn’t complained about the people in their workplace – or let a buzzword tragically fall from their lips in a meeting so they feel included.
“We thought initially the idea might appeal to corporate groups but quickly realised it had a broader appeal. People were coming up to us after the show and saying how it mirrored their work life – how they had to sit through stupid and useless meetings or other things that impacted their world.”
It was an idea James had been sitting with for a long time, especially with the advent of all those annoying and ultimately useless buzzwords and phrases which have found their way into workplace speak.
Prime contenders include “let’s circle back”, “move the needle”, “take this offline”, “deep dive”, “cross functional” and “bandwidth”.
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As comedians the pair have known each other for a decade, Charles being a longtime political satirist, including being a founding member of The Chaser, while James is behind The Shovel.
Creating Wankernomics was a chance for them to work together and turn their smart snark on the modern workplace – and like an office place virus, letting it spread across the land.
“While the word wanker doesn’t translate exactly in every country, here we get a pretty clear idea of what someone is talking about. Words I hate include symbiotic and stakeholders, it’s a cover for someone who is important but probably doesn’t actually exist,” James said.
“Another one is ‘socialise a document’ – which means can you email it.”
Wankernomics’ return to town is part of the upcoming Perth Comedy Festival, where the duo will explain how corporate ‘bullshittery’ is taking over the world – and your life.
They’ll be joining a line-up of new faces and returning favourites, including Malaysian doctor-turned-comedian Dr Jason Leong and UK-born Aussie resident nurse Georgie Carroll.
“It’s a ridiculous title but I think people will relate to it. I worked in marketing for a while and worked as a copywriter and what I wanted to do was help corporations get rid of jargon and help them write clearly and in a way that makes sense. Now I’m trying to do that on stage and we’re having lots of fun doing it.”
Perth Comedy Festival runs from April 20 to May 17 in venues around Perth. Tickets and info from www.perthcomedyfestival.com
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