Still gay. Sorry ladies.
It’s hard to know whether to describe Tom Ballard as a rising star or an established pro. He’s young, sure. But he started out in comedy in the Class Clowns competition when he was fourteen. He’s got a great radio career and a substantial following of his stand-up already, but you get the feeling this is just the beginning.
Ballard’s early start at comedy meant that he found his voice early on. “When you’re fourteen years old, it’s really about doing stand-up rather than saying something of any value. When I was sixteen I did Raw Comedy and I did the Comedy Zone and stuff a couple of years later, and when I was doing all that I was really just telling jokes – really short routines about stupid things that I’d kind of noticed. But then I started talking about being gay and coming out and that kind of thing, and it was just a lot more, I guess honest, response, and started talking about me, and what makes me tick, and all the things about me. That’s when I think I started making a ‘comedic voice’, I guess or whatever.”
YUP, STILL GAY (SORRY LADIES)
Ballard came out when he was eighteen to supportive friends and family. “I sort of always knew that everything was going to be fine,” he says, “but it’s still a very awkward thing to do. To sit down to tell someone that you like cock.”
Ballard’s 2010 show, I Am What I Am shared the experience in a way that many people could relate to. “It was more about awkwardness and I think everyone can relate to awkwardness, and I think because I’m kind of a ‘straight acting’ guy, I bridged that gap between your average heterosexual person and a flamingly camp stand-up. Not that I think that there’s anything wrong with that, I would say that that’s just people being themselves, but sometimes it’s hard for people to connect with that because it’s so far removed from their experience. So I think when I was talking pretty honestly about what that was like, I think maybe that prompted people to think about if they were gay, what would it be like for them to come out and everything. The feedback I got back after that show was people just found it interesting, or found it a little bit refreshing, to see someone talk about that in a way that wasn’t, you know, Julian Clare-y-esque. That was something I was sort of proud of and I was happy just happened.”
Since 1989, Ballard’s 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show talks about growing up and having your heart broken. “Still gay,” he reassures. Although homosexuality isn’t the focus of the show, it’s bound to come up. It’s a subject Ballard says he doesn’t get sick of talking about. “I think I’m wary of not being labelled as that being my ‘shtick’ – I think that’s really important. I want to be a comedian first and gay second, if we need to rank them. I don’t want to build a career on just being gay and having an exclusively gay fan base, because I think that gets a bit self-serving and a bit boring and it’s not the comedy I really like watching or doing. I’m wary of that, but you know, there’s still plenty of bad things happening to gay people so I’m always happy to be out and proud and talk about it. I’m very proud of my support from the gay community, but you know, anyone can buy tickets to my show – anyone is welcome.”
ON THE RADIO
The breakfast radio slot is coveted amongst comedians. Ballard now has a show with Alex Dyson every morning on triple j. “Alex and I are friends from way back, we were in nursing mothers together. We were like family friends. We both grew up in Warnambool, we went to the same primary school. We went to different high schools and we sort of reconnected with each other when we started doing musicals together with this group called Holiday Actors and just hanging out together doing those we sort of realised that we had a pretty similar sense of humour and we could make each other laugh,” says Ballard.
The pair started out in community radio together. “My brother had been doing a show on the local community radio station with his friends and it just seemed like an easy kind of fun thing. You pay to be a member of the community radio station and you got your hour and you could play whatever you want, say whatever you want, so that seemed like fun and I just asked Alex if he wanted to do that and that’s how we started doing radio together.”
While the pair have a lot of help selecting tunes these days, back in the day, Ballard carted in his own music. “I used to be pretty proud of my musical tastes. I used to bring in a giant tub of CDs, it was all on CDs back then, now it’s all on computers. I used to buy albums all the time and try and research stuff I hadn’t heard of and yeah bring in this God damn tub while he would maybe bring in maybe three CDs. It was probably unnecessary to be honest, because I probably went in there knowing the six songs I wanted to play, but it just felt like a commitment to bring that giant tub in. I really love music; I played a lot of Ben Folds and The Whitlams and Flaming Lips and Fiona Apple, anything I really liked in the moment, really.”
It seems the most successful radio duos are those who had a genuine friendship before taking to the studio. Hamish and Andy and Tom and Alex are great examples. “This manufactured sense of whacking people together is kind of foolhardy,” says Ballard. “I think it can work, depending on where the people are in their career. I think, you know, putting two massive personalities together isn’t going to work, but I think if people are starting out and they’re cool to try stuff then often they’ll grow a friendship. Or, if you just have really lovely people like Robbie and Marieke and The Doctor had never worked together before but they came together and became incredibly good friends and I think people got a sense of that when they listened to that show. I definitely think that natural chemistry between people is all anybody wants.
“There’s a big thought in radio that you have to constantly engage the listener and you’ve got to involve them and talk directly to them but I don’t necessarily subscribe to that. I think sometimes people just want to listen to two friends having a chat back and forth to each other and they’ll get involved in their own way in terms of agreeing with one person or having their own opinion. I think sometimes you want to listen to really good chat and you can’t really fake that. But if you’re able to produce that realistically then that’s the start to a good radio show.”
AND THE FUTURE…
For the moment, Ballard’s schedule is full with radio and stand-up, but that doesn’t stop him wondering if perhaps acting is in his future. He mentions Ricky Gervais as an example of a great comedic actor and alludes to a little sitcom writing project he’s got going on. “I think I can act and I’d like to act more so if there are any producers reading this edition of Beat then get in touch, please,” he says. Anyone after a rising star?
Catch Tom Ballard at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival performing his show, Since 1989, at The Swiss Club Tuesday – Saturday at 9.30pm and Sundays at 8.30pm until April 24. Ticets are $22 – $26 and available through Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door.
