Any regular listener during Tom Ballard’s four year stint co-hosting triple j breakfast would be well acquainted with the young comedian’s political persuasion. Essentially, as he puts it, Ballard’s never hidden that he’s “a lefty fag”. Unsurprisingly, politics are a recurring feature in Ballard’s stand-up routines. This year’s MICF show, UnAustralian(ish), is no exception, but it’s not as pointed as you might expect.
“It’s mainly about a family holiday I went on in 1995 with my family,” he explains. “We drove half way around Australia like Burke & Wills, except with a car and less dysentery. So I’ve got a family slideshow, I’ve got diaries my brother and I kept on the trip.”
This description might have you wondering what informs the show’s curious title. Well, there’s a little more to UnAustralian(ish) than a nostalgic look into Ballard’s childhood. “I tell you the story of what went down there and then along the way I go off on little tangents about what I reckon it means to be Australian and what I think is great about this country and what I think maybe we still need to work on.”
Figuring out what qualifies something as distinctly ‘Australian’ is quite a blurry task. Ballard agrees that picking out definitive Australian-isms will inevitably produce a narrow or biased conception.
“I talk about it in the show – we’ve produced Clive James and Germaine Greer and Peter Singer and Patrick White and Barry Humphries; all these incredibly intelligent people. We’ve also given the world Shannon Noll and Kevin Bloody Wilson. Just something like that made me think, ‘How can we possibly define our national identity when that’s the scope of what you’re dealing with culturally?’”
Ballard’s also attuned to the fact that, when it comes to ideological matters, attempts to superimpose inherent meaning into the notion ‘Australian’ can have wayward ramifications. “[There’s] this idea that there are ‘Australian values’, as if we’re the only ones that care about mateship or freedom and fairness. I think it’s much more healthy to think of those as universal values. Nationalism is just ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘us’ and ‘them’ all the time. It makes every problem ever worse. I mean, look at the way we’re treating asylum seekers – that fear of the ‘other’ – these strange people with weird names, different religions and different languages.”
Yep, there’s that compassionate political edge rearing its head. Ballard’s quick to clarify the show isn’t an exercise in Aussie-bashing, but he does think deciding specific humane interests are exclusively Australian is largely misguided.
“I feel very lucky to have been born and raised here, but the idea of borders, being proud of where you come from just has less and less sway with me and people age. People in my generation, we haven’t lived through a World War where the identity was kind of forged. So for us, with the internet and stuff, we tend to see everything [with] a much more global view.”
It’s one thing to get on his political high-horse and disparage government policy for the sake of a few laughs, but will this actually make a concrete impact? Well, Ballard is acting on the imperative to assist hopeful new Australian arrivals.
“At the end of the show I’m asking for collections for Welcome To Australia,” he says, “which is a charity that helps out asylum seekers and immigrants. That feels really nice, to have actual practical good come out of doing a stand-up show. I’d feel guilty if I was just banging on about how shit we are to asylum seekers and not actually doing anything about it.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Venue: Melbourne Town Hall – Council Chambers, Cnr Swanston & Collins St, CBD
Dates: Currently playing until April 20 (except Mondays)
Times: 8.30pm (Sundays 7.30pm)
Tickets: $22-$28
