Author Archives: Tom

254 – Ben Schneiders

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Ben Schneiders is an award-winning investigate journalist at The Age and author of the new book, Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality. 

Over the past eight years, Ben’s reporting has exposed the scourge of wage theft and worker exploitation in Australian hospitality, fast food, retail and agriculture. In Hard Labour, Ben summarises just how widespread and serious this problem is in Australian capitalism today, and lays out exactly what’s been happening over the past 50 years that’s seen workers’ power dwindle so much.

This was a great conversation, in which Ben and I discussed the enraging specifics of the wage theft cases, why the SDA sucks, how much we should blame the ALP for all this and where we might find some hope in the future for Australian workers.

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

My debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else is out November 30th – pre-order it now

I’m launching the book with events in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane

Come see the 2022 Yearly Wrap show I’m hosting at Comedy Republic in Melbourne in December

I’m doing a Work in Progress show at the very cool Brunswick Picture House in January

Check out with my other podcast about the Greens and green politics with Emerald Moon, Serious Danger

@BenSchneiders

Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality is published through Scribe

ARTICLE: Shopped Out: SDA & Fair Work Commissions by Ben & Royce Millar

Cause of the Week: Join your union (australianunions.org.au)

IF YOU WORK IN RETAIL PLEASE JOIN RAFFWU NOT THE SDA (raffwu.org.au)

 

Direct download    |      iTunes     |     Spotify    |     libsyn

BOOK LAUNCH TOUR, BABY

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I’m launching my whittle book in MELBOURNE, SYDNEY & BRISBANE and would love you to come along to watch me be all intellectual and shit.

Here’s some hot copy:

The world is in chaos. It’s time for a revolution and “comedian” Tom Ballard is ready to serve as its glorious leader.

After 30 years of his entitled Millennial life, Ballard has had enough of the smashed avocado jokes. He’s furious at the raw deal his generation has been given, and he’s pretty sure things can’t be this crappy because of brunch.

It’s not your imagination: Millennials really have inherited the bill for our current ‘prosperity’, and it sucks. Millennials have been handed a housing crisis, crippling student debt, the gig economy, a cooked planet, a truly broken political system and now a global pandemic, as a treat. For a moment it looked like COVID-19 might radically change things – like housing the homeless and lifting the unemployed out of poverty – but it ended up just making rich ghouls like Gerry Harvey even richer.

In I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else, Ballard unpicks how we got here and why.

 

MELBOURNE

WHEN: 6:30pm, Wednesday November 30th

WHERE: Easey Street Concert Hall, 35 Easey Street Collingwood

IN CONVERSATION WITH: Osman Faruqi

Book here.

___

 

SYDNEY

WHEN: 6:30pm, Friday December 2nd

WHERE: Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown

IN CONVERSATION WITH: Jan Fran

Book here.

___

 

BRISBANE

WHEN: 6:30pm, Tuesday December 6th

WHERE: 193 Boundary St, West End QLD 4101

IN CONVERSATION WITH: Emerald Moon

Book here.

Work In Progress @ Brunswick Heads

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New jokes! By the beach!

After writing a book, filming a TV show, becoming an uncle, surviving the plague and going slightly mad, Tom Ballard is back with a hot new hour – just for you.

Catch a work in progress of Tom’s new stand-up show in Brunswick Heads before it tours the country! One show only.

 

Book tickets here.

2022 Yearly Wrap @ Comedy Republic

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WHEN: Wednesday 14 December, 6:45pm

WHERE: Comedy Republic, 231 Bourke Street Melbourne

 

2022 is almost done! Hosted by Tom Ballard, Comedy Republic’s Yearly Wrap is the definitive deep dive into the year that was.

We’ll be investigating the best, worst, and cursed moments – from the rewarding, to the wretched, and even the damn right ridiculous.

Emma Holland takes a scalpel the pop culture trends that was, Fergus Neal & Dahn Rozario tackle the internet’s atrocities, Jordan Barr provides an unorthodox in memoriam, Pat McCaffrie examines the state of politics, and Gillian Cosgriff adds the cherry on top with a song.

 

Book here.

253 – Leo Puglisi

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I’m back! Again! Sorry about the big gap between episodes. I am bad.

Leo Puglisi is a digital journalist who just so happens to be 14 years old. He founded what would eventually become the online news service 6 News Australia when he was just 11, and he’s since grown it into a respectable independent media outlet that does pretty great journalism, and regularly puts mainstream “adult” media outlets to shame. During the 2022 election, Leo even managed to secure and conduct insightful interviews with Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.

Here Leo talks to me about starting a media outlet so young, what he sees as the mission behind 6 News, the kind of criticism and trolling he’s had to face online, his dedicated to fact checking and what he thinks makes for a great political interview.

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

My debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else is out November 30th – pre-order it now

Check out with my other podcast about the Greens and green politics with Emerald Moon, Serious Danger

@Leo_Puglisi6

@6NewsAU

6newsau.com

patreon.com/6newsau

Cause of the Week: Sponsor me in the ASRC’s KMs of Compassion here

Direct download    |      iTunes     |     Spotify    |     libsyn

My debut book “I, MILLENNIAL” is OUT NOW WOAH

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‘A damn hilarious read.’ Nazeem Hussain

‘A true barbarian.’ Andrew Bolt

Our world is in chaos lol. And no, Australian Millennials, it’s not your imagination: things are especially f**ked for us.

Millions of Baby Boomers got beach houses, free education, jobs for life and a franking credit-fed retirement. But Millennials have been handed a housing crisis, crippling student debt, the gig economy, a cooked planet, a truly broken political system and now wars, inflation and a global pandemic, as a treat.

This fully sucks. But never fear – this book is going to fix everything. Through the power of jokes, history, interviews and sass, so-called comedian Tom Ballard unpicks how his generation got here, and explains why we should probably do a revolution.

Fact-filled and furiously funny, this is a must-read not just for young people wondering why they’ve been given such a raw deal,
but for anyone with an interest in how we’re making our collective future impossible.

‘Tom Ballard is one of the most original, fearless and hilarious voices in Australian comedy.’ Wil Anderson

‘As a fellow beleaguered Millennial, Tom is exactly the voice we need in this time of wailing capitalist death throes. Funny but biting, he lays out how the system has screwed us all – and it has nothing to do with avocado toast. You’ll never be able to afford a house, so spend your money on this book instead.’ Amy Remeikis

‘Ballard is fuming, funny, and armed with facts.’ Tom Tilley

‘Speaking as Tom’s non-biological mother, I am naturally proud to bursting of everything he does, especially the gay sex and particularly the class consciousness, which you will find emerging in this book.’ Helen Razer

‘Tom makes me laugh, and think. I’m not sure in which order. This book might be his last but that’s ok – he’s nailed it.’ Dave Hughes

 

ORDER HERE!

#Kwanda: A Play Full Recording

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Here’s the satirical play I wrote back in 2019 for your viewing pleasure.

Monday night, 9.30pm, ABC.

Five panellists join a veteran journalist host on the nation’s flagship discussion program, ready to answer audience questions about the 2019 Australian federal election.

It’s set to be a scintillating display of civilised and enlightening debate.

Then someone starts saying what they really think, and it all goes to shit.

A satire about politics, words, honesty and The Discourse.

Recorded @ MICF 2019

Ra Chapman as SUSAN MINN

Emily Taheny as KATIE BIRD

Michelle Brasier as MEREDITH DUNN

Tom Ballard as TONY JONES

Patrick Livesey as MICHAEL LAWSON

Geraldine Hickey as LEONIE HARRIS

Scott Edgar as BRIAN / GUITARIST

Written by Tom Ballard

Directed by Alan Brough

Thanks to Zen, the MICF and all at Token Events