Friday’s opening night show in the Spiegeltent at the Garden of Unearthly Delights was sold out, with a packed crowd expecting the wit and cutting insights for which The Gruen Transfer host is known.

Wilegal is told with plenty of humour – and there are some mental breaks with detours into other comedic topics, such as his love for recently adopted dogs with showbiz names that would make his farmer father cringe – but most of the show is about the arrest, and his explanation of what he did to get cuffed takes almost as long as that flight.

To tell you what he did and how he reacted to a fairly ridiculous situation would give the whole show away. Suffice to say that while most audience members could probably empathise with the comedian’s sense of outrage and injustice, the hour-long venting session was a bit much for Fringe stand-up

If you love Wil Anderson, you’ll probably go and see Wilegal irrespective of any reviews, but it isn’t his best work. He could easily have covered the tale of his arrest in a quarter of the time, then moved on to something else. It is still entertaining, but I expect many left the performance feeling as though they’d just paid close to $50 to provide therapy to the traumatised artist.

My advice? Don’t upset Qantas flight staff, and if you want to see Wilegal, go on cheap Thursday!

Wil Anderson is performing Wilegal in the Garden of Unearthly Delights until March 11. Read more InDaily Fringe reviews and stories here.