Review: Tom Ballard - Since 1989

Editorial

When: 31 March-24 April, 2011.
Where: Swiss Club
Reviewed: 7 April, 2011.

Best known as the co-host of the JJJ Breakfast program, Warrnambool boy turned award-winning comedian Tom Ballard returns to the Comedy Festival with his third solo show, in which he exorcises the pain of heartbreak through humour.

Nothing is off-limits for Ballard, whether it's his sex life with ex-boyfriend Josh Thomas, taking drugs with musician Dan Sultan, or joking about Josef Fritzl. His frankness is occasionally startling (especially for fans who only know him through JJJ, a job in which, Ballard quips, he has to “pretend to like Bliss n Eso”), but he navigates his sometimes uncomfortable terrain with considerable aplomb.

A sharp, sardonic show that transmutes the pain of breaking up into comedic gold.

Richard Watts, Citysearch