Date: 8 August 2026
Time: 8.20pm
Rating: ★★★★(4/5)
Reviewed by: Kaitlyn Smith
Frenchy arrives at this year’s Fringe with The Instigator, a brand-new hour promising dark one-liners, wild stories and the kind of jokes that leave you wondering whether he can actually say that. If you already know Frenchy from the videos that have gained him a huge following online, none of that will come as much of a surprise. Early in the show, he asks how many people have seen his viral videos and well over half the room put their hands up, with several audience members having seen him live before too. There was already a familiarity between Frenchy and a large part of the crowd before he had really got going, and it didn’t take long for them to make themselves part of the show.
His comedy is unapologetically crude, and absolutely nothing seems to be particularly off limits. Sex, relationships, Epstein, pubic hair and C-section scars somehow all find their way into the conversation, alongside observations about Australians, Kiwis, hotels and whatever else happens to catch his attention. Some of the humour definitely leans towards jokes for the boys, and this isn’t going to be the show for anyone easily offended, but Frenchy doesn’t pretend otherwise. The darker and more controversial subjects are very much part of his style, and he has a knack for throwing something ridiculous into the room, waiting for the reaction and immediately finding another joke in whatever comes back at him.
What became particularly apparent during this performance was just how strong Frenchy is at crowdwork. He comes across as naturally conversational, and his responses are incredibly quick. On this particular night, though, he was performing to an unusually male-heavy room, with what I later learned was a group of around 30 rugby players making up a significant part of the audience. Once they realised Frenchy was more than capable of responding to whatever was thrown at him, the heckles became increasingly frequent.
It created a strange situation where one of Frenchy’s biggest strengths also made it harder for him to move on. He dealt with the interruptions incredibly well and often turned them into some of the funniest moments of the night, but every response seemed to encourage another shout from somewhere in the room. At one point, an audience member even interrupted a joke about C-section scars with “What happened to mine?”, which gives you a fairly good idea of the sort of room he was dealing with. At points, I found myself wanting the audience to give him a chance to continue, because we were repeatedly being pulled away from the material he had actually been trying to perform.
That also made The Instigator an interesting show to review, because I suspect the performance could feel completely different from one night to the next. With a quieter crowd, there may have been considerably more space for Frenchy’s stories and prepared material, whereas our audience seemed determined to get involved at every available opportunity. The unpredictability does suit his comedy, though, and even when he was dragged away from whatever he had been talking about, he never looked uncomfortable or lost control of the room. He would follow the interruption, find the laugh and eventually work his way back.
The Instigator promises unpredictability and the kind of jokes that make you think “he can’t say that”, and we certainly got both. Frenchy is quick, confident and completely comfortable taking his comedy into territory other performers might avoid. I came away impressed by how well he handled a particularly vocal room, although also slightly frustrated on his behalf that we didn’t always get to see where his planned material was going. With an audience this heavily involved, I suspect no two performances of The Instigator will ever be quite the same.
On this particular night, Frenchy may have been The Instigator, but the audience certainly gave him some competition.
★★★★ – 4/5
