Tom Gleeson recalls bombing first TV stand-up gig

The Aussie comedian has recalled a trainwreck televised stand-up gig that left him fearing his career was done.

Tom Gleeson has recalled how one of his first stand-up TV gigs was a complete trainwreck, and left him fearing his career would be over before it begun.

The Gold Logie winner, 49, appeared on Tuesday night’s episode of the Creative Types With Virginia Trioli, where the veteran journalist played footage from Gleeson’s cameo on ABC TV’s live music show Recovery in 1998.

A baby-faced, bright-eyed Gleeson can be seen cracking a series of jokes and testing out some physical comedy, none of which lands with the live audience.

“I remembered at the time thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve died on TV. That’s how I’ve started. Great’,” Gleeson told Trioli of the gig.

Tom Gleeson has recalled bombing his first TV stand-up gig.

Gleeson on an episode of ‘90s show Recovery.

At one point, Recovery host Dylan Lewis visibly cocked his eyebrow at the camera during Gleeson’s set.

But the Taskmaster and Hard Quiz host reckons he’s had the last laugh.

“Dylan spent the whole time pulling funny looks at the camera and drawing focus … Which is very unprofessional,” Gleeson joked.

“But anyway, I’m still on TV and Dylan’s not.”

Dylan Lewis hosted ABC TV's Recovery in the '90s.

Elsewhere, Gleeson opened up to the program about being an “outsider” at school, before he became “obsessed” with the stage when he started doing comedy in university.

“You just could not keep me away from the stage,” he said.

“I remember really early on, I was in a comedy competition and I deliberately spent that whole week doing spots around town [as preparation]. I even did stand-up spots between bands at band venues, so by the time I got to the final [of the competition], I knew I was set. And I know no one else had done that [level of] preparation.

“Diligent … Obsessed is probably closer to the truth. I just had to do it.”

Gleeson featured on Tuesday’s Creative Types with Virginia Trioli.

Gleeson’s mainstream breakthrough came in 2003 when he featured on Channel 10’s comedy sketch program Skithouse. 

He gained notoriety for portraying a series of characters, notably, his hilarious parody of Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee – which was named the ‘Australian Fast Bowler’.

Soon after, Gleeson was invited to star on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering where he landed his own segment ‘Hard Chat’, which saw the comedian conduct brutal interviews with some of Australia’s most famous people.

“That was the rise of this version of Tom Gleeson,” fellow comedian told Trioli.

Watch Tom Gleeson on Creative Types with Virginia Trioli on ABC iview

Originally published as Tom Gleeson recalls bombing first TV stand-up gig