Not gonna lie, I teared up a fair bit today as I went along to Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall‘s Fucking Off Party. He’s a brilliant, lovely, generous, talented man and I feel very lucky to count him as a friend. He leaves behind a kick-arse legacy at the js and had a hell of a show to (almost) go out on one (he’s back on air tomorrow).
I got to jump up and make a bit of fun of him and say a few words; you can listen back to the whole thing here.
Rod Quantock (whom I love) is running a Pozible campaign to help his climate change education initiative, The Last Tim Tam.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Straya is doing shit all about climate change (or that it really matters), so reminders about that are ideal.
Rod knows heaps of stuff and is fucking hilarious and if there’s anyone who can save us, it’s him. I chipped in some bucks for this campaign and I hope you can too. Any contribution will help make an interesting, funny wake up call to this crisis a reality.
Christmas cometh! And hey, trust me, I love wine and chocolates and bikes and Action Man toys as much as the next guy, but what else is nice is helping disadvantaged people.
Oxfam does a very good job of that, so if you can’t think what to get your family or friends or lover this year, check out their Unwrapped site and maybe buy someone a goat like a BAWS.
Profoundly shitty news has come through today that the comedian, activist, writer, thinker, sexy fox and downright legend that is Stella Young passed away over the weekend due to a brain aneurism.
I was lucky enough to meet Stella once or twice on the Melbourne comedy scene. She was funny. She was passionate. She was a delight to talk to. She cut through bullshit like a knife. She made me think about so many things differently.
We’re all lessened by her passing and we’re going to miss her. It’s a fucking bummer.
Thankfully she lives on through her work, like the above TED talk she gave, through quotes like these, through writing like this and through jokes like these:
Stella’s family has asked folks to donate to Domestic Violence Victoria, a cause that Stella was particularly passionate about. If you can spare a buck or two for them, that’d be great.
As a comedian with a disability, Stella was also very passionate about the wheelchair-accessibility of performance venues at comedy festivals. She reminded all of us, every year, that everyone should get the chance to see shows and piss themselves, crips included. The Swiss Club, where I’ve performed my MICF show for a couple of years now (and where I’ll be returning to in 2015), unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. Perhaps now more than ever I feel shitty about this, and am going to try to figure out a way to get around it somehow, perhaps by putting on one night in a wheelchair-friendly venue.
I am definitely going to have one of my shows signed by an interpreter next year, increasing accessibility for deaf and low functioning deaf people. It’s a small thing, but it’s important. And I guess my commitment to that is thanks to Stella, and proof of her legacy.
Thanks for everything, Miss Young. We both know that heaven doesn’t exist, but if it did, I like to think you’d be up there cutting some sick wheelies like the mad dog you are.
Love Tom
I spent today editing a web series pilot for SBS called Fully Furnished.
I’m making it with my mate Tommy Dassalo, I think it’s going to be pretty funny and best of all I look super hot in it.
Pleas put your boners away.
Keep an eye out for the thing on the internet in 2015.
I was lucky enough to do an episode of Peter Helliar‘s It’s A Date with my lovely friend Joel Creasey. You can check it out on ABC iView here.
And just to show that we can all have a laff, here are some blooooooperz:
So a bunch of friends indulged me and helped me put on a night of old-timey radio at the Giant Dwarf Theatre.
Listen back to our shenanigans and some awesome performances from Shed Muzak and Elana Stone here:
