If ever someone was a natural performer, it’s Will Gibb. Which is just as well, as the rising comedian and star of ABC comedy Bad Company has zero interest in the daily grind of office life.
“I remember I did a radio thing one morning in the city and as I was leaving, everyone was walking to their jobs in their suits,” Will, 27, tells TV WEEK. “And I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to go home and go to bed and you guys are locked up in this building all day, it’s crazy. It was like I was in A Christmas Carol and I was being shown what my possible future could have been.”
Fortunately for Will, a corporate career is not beckoning, although his social media numbers have fans circling back for more. On TikTok, close to two million followers watch Will’s funny videos, while on Instagram he has more than 200,000 followers.
Whether it’s posting funny videos online, performing stand-up comedy shows, hosting red carpet live streams for Hollywood movies (“I bumped into Tom Cruise”) or acting in a major TV comedy, Will is ever the passionate performer.
“It’s the best,” he says. “It’s what I was born to do. I get such a strong feeling from it. I’m obsessed with it.”
Bad Company creator and star Anne Edmonds caught Will performing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival last year and thought he might be right for the role of Ryan.
“And then from that, I met up with her for a coffee just to see if we vibed and then yeah, I did a screen test and then got the role, which was pretty cool,” Will enthuses.
In Bad Company, Ryan is the naïve but well-meaning son of Argyle Theatre CEO Julia (Kitty Flanagan), who finds a love for the stage. Will admits he was initially nervous about whether he could make Ryan likeable.
“The young oblivious character can be annoying, but Edo (Anne) wrote Ryan in such a way that I was like, ‘OK, I can see how I can make this guy work, which was good,” Will says.
“And I think at Ryan’s age, you’re a bit lost and confused and not really sure what you want to do with your life, which obviously I can relate to.”
While he’d loved performing since he was 12, Will found himself working several jobs trying to find his niche. He took jobs as a delivery driver, a drama teacher, a caterer and other jobs before one day he decided he’d had enough.
“It was painful and I ended up deciding I was going to start posting online and that kind of got me where I am now,” he says.
Some of Will’s videos skewer the typical macho male persona, something he says he was surrounded by at school and university. And while he loves performing comedy on stage, he doesn’t quite share his character’s passion for theatre.
“Honestly, I’m not a theatre guy, which is terrible,” Will concedes. “I did a lot of plays in high school. But most plays are really boring. I’d see an hour-and-a-half play if it was interesting, but a four-hour long show with an interval about some sort of niche political thing, no way.”
A huge fan of Anne’s growing up, Will was genuinely excited to be working with the fellow comedy performer on Bad Company. For his first high-profile TV role, the atmosphere on the set of the show was always welcoming, he says.
“And all the crew were like, ‘Oh, it’s never normally like this (on shows),” Will says. “It taught me, yes, I would love to do (more TV), but I’m going to need to be with the right people.”
Bad Company airs Sunday, 8.15pm on ABC and iView.
