Wendy Zuckerman interviewed me for this brilliant ABC podcast, allowing us all to laugh AND learn.
Author Archives: Tom
26 – Shatha Hamade
Vegan lawyer Shatha Hamade is a former prosecutor for the RSPCA and is now the Head of Investigations for Animals Australia. She’s passionate about advocating for animal rights and challenging social conditioning when it comes to the way we treat our fellow earthlings.
In this chat (recorded in the AA offices, where DOGS JUST RUN AROUND FREELY IT IS SO COOL) we discuss her “wake-up” moment, the kind of godawful abuses she’s witnessed, the law’s approach to animals accoridng to their “use”, inherited thinking, the links between animal cruelty and a myriad of other social problems, the live export and live baiting investigations and the non-humans right movement.
A warning: animal cruelty is described in explicit detail here, some listeners may find it disturbing.
The Wanda Sykes Gala at Just For Laughs 2015
Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred at London’s Soho Theatre in September
My opinion piece: Eric Abetz is confused about marriage equality
Article: Pets at work policies proving beneficial for both humans and dogs
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Article: How Lyn White rewrote the rules on animal welfare
The Conquest: A Cane Toad Documentary
Video: Restore your faith in humanity – humans saving animals
TED Talk: Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should also have rights by Steven Wise
Cause of the Week: Animals Australia (animalsaustralia.org)
Wanda Sykes Gala @ JFL 2015
I’m on this line-up at Just For Laughs 2015 and I am terrified but I am telling myself it will be good and great fun.
If you’re going to be in Montreal come Thursday July 23rd, you can buy tickets here.
A fixture of great TV, comedy veteran Wanda Sykes brings her trademark wit, and larger than life personality, to the Just for Laughs stage on July 23. A celebrated author, Sykes was also the first African-American woman to be the featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
With such a successful career under her belt, Montrealers will be tripping over themselves to get a ticket to her Gala. Her lineup is Keith Robinson, Nate Bargazte, Alonzo Bodden, Harland Williams, and Tom Ballard.
Eric Abetz Is Confused
Senator Eric Abetz wrote this silly opinion piece so I had a crack at one too.
Like a 15-year-old Tom Ballard catching himself admiring his friends’ bodies at the school swimming carnival, Senator Eric Abetz is confused.
The world is a confusing place: Ireland has voted in favour of marriage equality by popular vote, the US Supreme Court held that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and now radical hippies like Warren Entsch plan to co-sponsor a bill calling for change to the Marriage Act.
Amid all this insanity, Senator Abetz wrote an opinion piece for Fairfax and was interviewed on ABC radio and Sky News about how the media has an agenda to silence critical voices on this issue.
(FYI newspapers, radio stations and TV networks are generally considered to be part of the media.)
25 – Dan Ilic
Dan Ilic is a political satirist who employs what he calls “evidence-based shit-stirring”. He loves taking the piss in all sorts of media; his sensibilities can be found in The Ronnie Johns Half-Hour, Can of Worms, The Mansion, Hungry Beast, his ads for GetUp!, his labour of love satire collective A Rational Fear and more recently his work for Al Jazeera’s AJ+.
In this chat (recorded in a very SPECIAL LOCATION featuring a SPECIAL CAMEO), Dan and I reflect on the furore surrounding Q&A and discuss his amazing family story, how his “inner rage” fuels him to do what he does, the saga surrounding his piece (that was originally titled) Beaconsfield: A Musical In A Flat Minor, why he recently got fired and where he sees Australian political satire going in the future.
My show at the 2015 Phoenix Fringe in London
Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Article: ABC cowers in the face of Q&A fallout by Jonathan Holmes
Article: Democracy means even a jerk get a say by Annabel Crabb
The Saturday Paper Editorial: Furore over ABC’s Q&A mishandled
Article: Arrogant ABC’s left bias lets down taxpayers by Janet Albrechtsen ($)
Sketch: Where the bloody hell are you?
Sketch: David Hicks on MTV’s Cribs
Sketch: The National Muslim Hotline
Sketch: Corby’s Political Fix-O-Kit
Bad Ground: Inside The Beaconsfield Rescue by Tony Wright
Media reaction to Beaconsfield: The Musical
Cause of the Week: Sanfilippo Children’s Foundation (sanfilippo.org.au)
24 – Waleed Aly
Waleed Aly (aka Nazeem Hussain) is a politics lecturer, columnist, author, radio broadcaster and co-host on Channel Ten’s The Project.
Waleed has an extraordinary reputation for making considered and insightful contributions to public debate. We discussed how he’s finding the world of commercial television, how the act of writing informs his ideas, the political philosophy of conservatism (what it is and what it isn’t), marriage equality, Middle Eastern politics and why ISIS’ appeal to young Muslim people in the West might be working.
At one point I hit the mic with my hand and at another point a chair collapses.
Q&A: Between A Frock And A Hard Place
Waleed Aly’s writing for Fairfax
Daily Mail Article on Waleed’s on-air joke
Waleed’s editorial: How Chan and Sukumaran of the Bali 9 Were Let Down
Waleed’s editorial: Australia’s Renewable Energy Target Failure
Bill Maher’s monologue on political correctness
What’s Right? The Future of Conservatism in Australia by Waleed Aly
Q&A episode featuring Zaky Mallah
Cause of the Week: Possible Dreams International (possibledreams.org)
Mic In Hand – Thursday June 25th
I always love headlining this brilliant room at the Friend In Hand pub in Glebe, Sydney.
Tickets are $8 conc, $10 full. The show starts at 8pm, more info here.
Phoenix Fringe 2015 – Monday August 3rd
I’ll be doing an hour show at the Phoenix Fringe in London on Monday August 3rd at 8:30pm.
The Fringe is set up as an alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, featuring new shows from kewl guys and girls at affordable prices. It’s on at The Phoenix in Cavendish Square.
Tickets are £8 in advance, £10 on the door. OR you can see my show AND preview shows from the awesome Alex Edelman (at 7pm) and Milton Jones (at 10pm) that same night for just £20.
Bookings available here.
23 – Jake Stone
This week – something a bit different.
I am a very big fan of former Bluejuice frontman, comedian and broadcaster Jake Stone and feel very lucky indeed to count him as a friend. I think he’s extremely funny and creative but also has a darkness and a brutal honesty to him that I find fascinating.
This chat – recorded back in January of this year – covers Jake’s career with Bluejuice, the band’s philosophy, the state of today’s music industry, the major break-up in his life that inspired him so much and stilll haunts him, mental health issues and the experiecne of writing a good pop song.
Jake even kindly gave me a special little musical treat, just for this podcast: his cover of How Will I Know?. Enjoy!
My upcoming dates on the MICF Roadshow
ABC’s Q&A Special: Between A Frock And A Hard Place (hosted by me)
Cause of the Week: Music NSW (musicnsw.com)
WATCH: LGBTIQ&A Special
A new Australian documentary Between a Frock and a Hard Place (Thursday June 18 at 8.30pm), examines the inspiration and social context of the iconic Australian movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and highlights the extraordinary change in social attitudes and laws around homosexuality, masculinity and gender over the last 40 years.
Following on immediately from that will be Q&A SPECIAL: BETWEEN A FROCK AND A HARD PLACE.
Guests will include: gay rights activist and author Dennis Altman, entertainer Paul Capsis, broadcaster and journalist Julie McCrossin, President, Christian Democratic Party Rev. Fred Nile, transgender woman Julia Doulman, and student and queer activist, Katherine Hudson.
They’ll be joining host Tom Ballard LIVE on the Q&A panel.
You can watch or download the whole show on the Q&A website.
You can also catch the Monday Conference on “Homosexuality: Rights & Wrongs”, filmed in Mt Isa in 1976, on ABC iView.
Big thanks to everyone on the panel, the incredible team behind the show, the questioners, the studio audience and all youse who tuned in to the show and tweeted/facebooked/yelled at your telly. I’m really proud of the discussion we got to have and hope everyone felt they had a chance to have their say and hopefully hear some new stories and perspectives.
I didn’t get to say “I’ll take that as a comment”, but hey, maybe next time…