Over various tours here and abroad, Wankernomics has empowered Australian duo James Schloeffel and Charles Firth to monetise their deep dive into the synergistic facilitation of corporate goals (or some wank like that).
Their shows take the form of a business seminar, replete with PowerPoint and flashy animations. The title of their new offering Show_v4.1_Final_UseThis suggests (accurately) that some will be triggered by the use of filename variants to bluff past the absence of an appropriate version control system.
Such anomalies and oversights were surely front-of-mind for many in the large house, here to seek the wisdom of some (only slightly disgraced, recently downsized) senior Execs, to take back to their struggling cross-functional projects. Fortunately, the presentation was a briskly paced view of the various frustrations and banality of office work.
The meeting delighted in the lampooning of the emptiness and flabbiness of corporate speech. Even when some trainees had already predicted the next slide, our trainers’ revelations still scored loud bursts of laughter.
No doubt this is largely due to the satirical content’s authenticity. For example, a page of the alternative Wankernomics show packages available, with its rows of ticks and crosses, would be immediately familiar to anyone tasked with choosing between software tiers.
The potential blocker here is that the show feels mostly confined to one level – reflecting what we already know back at us. There’s no guidance on the big issues, like how to survive a toxic manager or bullshit job.
Maybe we’ll need the premium (or was it diamond?) package of the next tour for that. Still, there was lots of cringey fun to be had at the various vacuous “mission statements” or discussions of re-branding attempts, of corporations operating in Australia.
Wankernomics, responsible for sold-out tours of the UK and a best-selling book, certainly gave a slickly produced seminar. It won’t start a business revolution, but seemed to hit all of the KPIs that mattered to their audience.
Wankernomics: Show_v4.1_Final_UseThis
Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne
Performance: Sunday 5 April 2026 (6.00pm)
Information: www.comedyfestival.com.au
Image: Charles Firth and James Schloeffel (supplied)
Review: Jason Whyte