‘It was funny to be so... woke and be a supposed Nazi’: Tom Ballard

Comedian Tom Ballard has always been proud of his progressive politics, so it came as a surprise when he was publicly accused of being a fascist. At a stand-up gig earlier this year he delivered a bit about the new legislation proposing to outlaw the Nazi salute, which he performed in a mocking manner. A gentleman in the audience did not like it. He filmed the routine and soon certain mainstream media outlets were making breathless claims about the comic.

“It was funny to be so left-wing and woke and anti-racism, and also be in the newspaper as a supposed Nazi,” says Ballard.

Funny ha-ha or funny uh-oh? It’s increasingly hard to tell the difference. Fifty years ago, Victoria Police’s vice squad would raid theatres and haul off anyone deemed to offend public sensibilities. Today, social media offers much the same threat to artists of all stripes. Ballard’s latest project is a stage play that mines its humour from that rich vein of discomfort.

The comedian has been making people laugh professionally for 15 years. Up the tally to 20 if you count Class Clowns, the comedy competition for high schoolers that saw teenage Tom reach the national finals three times. He was still at school when JJJ came knocking and offered him a plum gig.

Tom Ballard says that unlike with stand-up, as a playwright you can ask questions without providing answers.Credit: Simon Schluter

“I’ve always been conscious of the fact that I had a bit of a charmed run. I started doing comedy, got spotted by JJJ pretty early on, and managed to fluke my way into a very cool full-time, high-profile media gig,” he says. “In my 20s, particularly, I was often going from gig to gig that I really liked, which was very lucky.”

Ballard broke through at an odd moment when the old rules of building a comedy career were shifting. TV gigs were still a big deal, but no one really knew what to do with this newfangled internet bizzo. “I didn’t pay attention to building up my online presence as much as possible, whereas people who started after me did that from the outset. I think a lot of people in my situation are like ‘OK, what’s a reel? I guess I better do that?’”

Luckily, he’s been in the game long enough that he can draw on his large back catalogue to maintain an online presence, but he still feels a little geriatric when compared to the content factories some newcomers establish.

“There’s all these new opportunities online that I don’t understand. I’m becoming the old man and these kids are on TikTok and have these huge audiences, and I’ve never heard of them. I wish them nothing but the best.”

It’s funny (funny ha-ha) that Ballard can occupy the role of the confused senior when he’s just 35.

Ballard, centre, with Tonightly crew Greta Lee Jackson, Bridie Connell, Greg Larsen and Nina Oyama.

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He’s recently changed his annual routine. For a long time, like most comics, he’d develop a new show to tour each year. In 2024, for instance, he played all of Australia’s major festivals before heading off to the UK and then touring Europe for two months. When he returned, however, he was creatively spent and couldn’t imagine going straight back into working up a whole new hour.

“So this year I directed a few shows and have taken the time to write more, like this play, and to just take a bit of a step back. I still need to do the occasional soulless gig in order to pay my mortgage and I know I’m very fortunate to be able to take that period and rely on savings for a bit,” he says. “But it’s been really good. I feel really refreshed and a little less on the hamster wheel.”

Ballard’s new play is jks: a comedy(?), part of this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival (“jks” is an internet slang for “jokes”). Don’t let the question mark throw you. It’s a hilarious ensemble piece that takes place backstage at the same kind of weekly comedy gig that dropped him in hot water earlier this year. A motley group of stand-up comedians shares the bill, from anti-woke throwback Jase to social justice warrior Alex, to May the non-binary clown. When news arrives of the death of an old-school comedy icon whose legacy is problematic at best, the divisions in the group call into question the very nature of humour itself.

Ballard has hosted his own TV shows and podcasts, won ARIAs for comedy albums, and been nominated for some of the world’s top awards for his stand-up. What’s the particular itch that only a stage play can scratch?

“I’ve been reminded of how much I love theatre. I started out wanting to be an actor and when I’m in London I go and see plays the whole time. I just love it. In the UK the world of comedy and theatre are much more interconnected. You see comedians move between those worlds a lot more.”

Jks isn’t Ballard’s first full-length play. That would be the 2019 #KWANDA, a satire of the ABC’s long-running panel program Q&A that Age critic Cameron Woodhead wrote “will have you laughing till it hurts”.

That show gave Ballard a taste of how writing for theatre can offer something different: “As a playwright you can just ask questions, which I love,” he explains. “You don’t have to think of answers.”

He once heard that every character in a great play is right. That’s guided him in trying to write characters who hold opposing viewpoints for good reason. “You can put the debate on stage and every single character says something that I agree with over the course of the play, and it allows me to express all of the different complicated feelings I have about this subject.”

Ballard has come to believe that words have meaning and comedians have a responsibility to think about what they say on stage, but he also believes that context is crucial. “What annoys me is when people refuse to acknowledge the context of comedy. Not everything said on stage is what somebody literally thinks. It can be the exact opposite of what they think, for the sake of a joke.”

Ballard’s interest in the messy world of what-you-can-and-can’t-say fuelled his 2017 stand-up show Problematic, but that format doesn’t always allow for nuance. “Stand-up sort of relies on you being definitive. So I really loved in this play when I wrote an argument for one character and a rebuttal for another, and thought ‘that’s actually a really great point...’”

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A play also allows him to include the kind of material that might have a regular stand-up in the stocks if quoted out of context. It can more easily be about humour that might offend without becoming that humour itself.

“The play contains a whole bunch of jokes that are pretty spicy, and delivered by great comic performers to make an audience laugh about stuff they might not necessarily laugh about, and to reflect on that.”

For all its willingness to wade into the murky waters of comedy and politics, ultimately jks is also a love letter to all the comedians Ballard has met in the countless green rooms they’ve shared at gigs, whatever their persuasion.

“Talking shit backstage is the most fun you can have. I wanted to see that on stage.”