After shows, he would often meet fans who were learning English as a second or third language, and they explained they watched his videos to pick up new vocabulary. “I said to them, ‘That’s a terrible way to learn! Don’t do that anywhere outside Australia, or you’ll get arrested’,” he laughs.

While he’s now made inroads into the hyper-competitive US market, there were times after his move to LA when Franklin feared he’d made a terrible mistake. He’d left behind a flourishing stand-up, radio and television career in Australia to start again stateside. For the first few years of his American life, he earned almost no money – his first cheque was for US$8 – and slept on friends’ couches.

‘They don’t care if you’ve done well in Australia. They don’t even care if you go to New York and you’ve done well in LA.’

Monty Franklin

“It’s very, very difficult to start stand-up in LA or New York,” he says. “You’d literally have to line up for hours to possibly get three minutes of stage time the next week, and you’d perform at 1am.

“I’d have to prove myself everywhere I went, in each different market. They don’t care if you’ve done well in Australia. They don’t even care if you go to New York and you’ve done well in LA. It was a lot of work.”

A breakthrough moment came when he was gigging at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, and another act on the bill, actor and comedian Rob Schneider, quizzed him about touring Australia. Shortly after, Schneider offered him the support slot for an upcoming run of dates and the pair became friends and collaborators.

Franklin and Schneider recently teamed up with John Cleese to write and star in an upcoming film, The Great Emu War, which retells a barely believable chapter of Australian history: when the army tried – and failed – to reduce the out-of-control emu population in the 1930s.

Working on the film, which he describes as a Crocodile Dundee-style crowd-pleaser, has been a dream project for Franklin.

He had also grown up idolising Cleese and says the Fawlty Towers star, who plays his father in the film, is “exactly like you want him to be”.

“I’ve never seen someone who is so silly yet commands so much respect from people. I learnt from him that kindness doesn’t mean weakness.

“I feel like now we’ve created a father-son bond, and it’s been one of the really nice points in my life. I’ve met one of my heroes and they’ve exceeded my expectations.”

Monty Franklin’s Yeah, Nah Tour is at Enmore Theatre on November 7.

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