Had a lovely chat on the ABC’s Conversation Hour with my fellow Moosehead recipients Laura Davis and Kate Denhert about our little shows and making different comedy. You can listen to it here.

Photo by Jim Lee

.@TomCBallard chats about his #MICF shows, joking about serious topics & visiting a detention centre #TheProjectTV https://t.co/a37yAbk4bD

— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) March 25, 2016

Super-chuffed to be a guest on Mr. Anderson’s podcast. We talked (a LOT) about radio, God, queer politics, offence, refugees and more.

You can listen to it on omnyapp or iTunes.

Here’s a piece on artsHub on the pros and cons of forging a career in the comedy biz, featuring me, Zoe Coombs-Marr, David Quirk, Susie Youssef, Kevin Kropinyeri and more.

The Wheeler Centre approached me for their “Working With Words” profile and I said “Ok” and now you can bloody read it right here.

What was the first piece of writing you had published?

There was a short story competition for kids held in my hometown of Warrnambool, and the best entries were published together in an actual physical book. I couldn’t believe it. I was only eight and already I was a published author! Like Paul Jennings! I believe my story featured both aliens and wizards, so I guess I’ve always been something of a maverick.

What’s the best part of your job?

As schmaltzy as it sounds, making people laugh. There is genuinely no greater feeling than when your routine is shaking a room and you can see people almost crying with laughter because of the dumb thoughts you’ve come up with and said out loud. Plus the catering on TV shows is usually pretty good.

Here’s a piece a wrote for The Saturday Paper on being wracked with white guilt as I put together a comedy show about refugees.

The first time I visited a detention centre, I was hungover. That has to be up there as one of the most pathetic, privileged, white person things you can do. I had used my freedom to dance the night away and drink a lot of gin and try, unsuccessfully, to kiss boys. Now I was here.

I’d met Nick on a Facebook group that facilitated visits to detention. He met me out the front to chat before we went inside.

“So, Tom, why were you keen to come along and visit today?”

I explained the premise of a show I was writing, and peppered it with a bit of “I’ve-been-meaning-to-do-this-for-a-long-time-anyway”. Nick nodded cautiously.

“Okay,” he said. “Just wanted to check. I saw you on the telly the other night and I said to my friend, who used to be here in detention, ‘That guy wants to come visit and find out more about refugees.’ And he sort of said, ‘Why? So he can just make money out of us?’ ”

I was taken aback. I hadn’t considered this. At all. I’d assumed that I was a good guy doing a good thing. I was helping.