Are you feeling disheartened by late-stage capitalism, government spending sprees, and soulless corporate jargon? Laugh the pain away (if only for an hour) with satire writers James Schloeffel and Charles Firth, as they wittily transform real-world corporate blunders into an eight-unit MBA you can add to your LinkedIn profile later. (Image: Alana Pahor)
By Alana Pahor | @Alana_Pahor
From the brilliant minds of writers James Schloeffel (The Shovel) and Charles Firth (The Chaser) comes Wankernomics: Solutionising The Corporate World, a satirical-comedy-turned-MBA guaranteed to leave you with aching sides and a useless corporate vocabulary.
Getting their audience straight into the (dis)spirit of capitalism, Schloeffel and Firth open with the bane of every university student and corporate worker’s existence: a Microsoft Teams meeting.
As the audience is greeted with pixelated screens, boomer-typical camera angles and reassurances that online learning won’t take away from the “experience”, they get their first taste of the duo’s hilarious sardonic recreation of corporate hell’s most relatable horrors.
Luckily, unlike university students during COVID-19, the audience soon gets the in-person lecture they paid for as Schloefell and Firth burst onstage amidst a smattering of laughter and applause.
Their stage presence is immediately engaging: dressed the part in suits and ties, the duo transform into businessman caricatures with their incessant pacing, gesturing and self-important talk.
The caricatures render over-privileged, pretentious corporate tycoons all the more irritating, encouraging audience members to egg on their mockery.
This is particularly the case when Firth and Schloeffel poke fun at the uber wealthy, complaining about the Australian government’s recently increased taxation on super balances exceeding $3 million.
“It’s been a tough week for us,” they sigh, met with laughter and groans alike from the audience, most of whom can only dream of being wealthy enough to be impacted by the superannuation cuts.
Not to fear, though: Firth and Schloeffel assure their audience that with some corporate gibberish, pointless meetings and over-budgeted mission statements, they too could soon be protesting the superannuation cuts (or, more likely, accidentally joining a pyramid scheme).
It is then that they launch into their eight units of “Wankernomics”, keeping a steady stream of current events humour coming at their audience throughout.
While the jokes are a riot in themselves, Firth and Schloeffel further emphasise the comedic absurdity of the corporate world with a variety of visual gags and PowerPoint slides during each “learning unit”.
Bullet lists on the importance of translating coherent words like “agree” into incoherent phrases like “we need to get everyone into alignment on that” make for a visually engaging representation of just how inefficient and unnatural corporate speech can be.
More engaging still, however, are the visual gags which encourage audience participation – particularly Firth and Schloefell’s “Mission Statement Generator” for the Sydney Harbour Bridge flag installation project.
Many Australians were left scratching their heads last year as to why $25 million had been budgeted for the addition of a First Nations flag to the Sydney Harbour Bridge – surely a flag doesn’t cost that much?
Firth and Schloeffel provide some clarity with a satirical itemised costings list that “justifies” the large budget and includes a $1.55 million content mission statement.
Suddenly, a giant “Mission Statement Generator” board and accompanying spinning wheel are brought on stage, and the proceeding 5 minutes are filled with audience shouts and cheers as they help create their own content mission statement for the flag project.
Not only are the props handy for getting the crowd involved, but they also fill out the stage space, adding pops of colour and variety which no doubt sustain the audience’s interest as the hour wears on.
For those wanting extra credit (and their very own Wankernomics certificate), two lucky audience members are also granted the opportunity to come up on stage and “volunteer” for Amazon or Uber.
The ensuing delivery escapade across the stage space entertains both performers and audience members alike, creating a chaotic, fast-paced atmosphere as the Amazon “volunteer” races to complete their order before Jeff Bezos docks their pay.
Up until this point in the show, there is not a dull moment. The performance space is constantly loud with laughter as Firth and Schloeffel rattle off a smooth-flowing repertoire of satirical “advice”, keeping the ball rolling quickly from unit to unit.
However, there is a lull in pacing and audience amusement during the last unit, which jokes about capitalising on love.
While the unit is entertaining, it is a significant step down from the interactive props and high audience participation levels present in prior units, and would have been better placed earlier in the show to avoid the slump towards the end.
That being said, it did not detract significantly from the overall performance, with a surprise “end of year exam” quickly ramping things back up for an amusing grand finale.
All in all, Wankernomics is a wickedly clever satire comedy that provides much-needed comic relief to those irked by late-stage capitalism and corporate blunders.
Wankernomics: Solutionising The Corporate World is showing at Gluttony until March 19.
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