‘It is so frustrating’: Comedians Joel Creasey and Rhys Nicholson on their careers and double standard we still see in Australia

Two Aussie comedians have revealed the bizarre double standard that is still in place when it comes to one extremely common joke.

When comedian Joel Creasey found out he didn’t get his dream job, he already knew who had beaten him out to get the part: his best mate, Rhys Nicholson.

The two comedians have been best friends for over a decade, meeting in their early 20s, but being constantly pitted against each other in a notoriously competitive industry hasn’t managed to thwart their friendship.

“We both started doing stand-up at the same time, Rhys started in Sydney and I started in Perth, in like 2011. We met at The Melbourne Comedy store and, of course, people pitted the two gay comedians against each other,” Creasey told news.com.au.

An iconic rivalry could have been on the cards, but there was just one fly in the ointment.

“It was love at first sight,” Nicholson explained to news.com.au.

“Rhys and I would do our spots and then we would sit at the back of the room and be besotted with whatever female comedian was on and drink too many white wines,” Creasey added.

When comedian Joel Creasey found out that he didn’t get his dream job, he already knew who had beaten him out to get the part: his best mate, Rhys Nicholson. Picture: Supplied

The two comedians have been best friends for over a decade, meeting in their early 20s. Picture: Supplied

The pair became fast friends and have stuck by each other’s side while navigating their careers.

They’re now both successful in their own right, but do both find it annoying, that they are often compared to one another.

It is one thing to be up for the same jobs, and quite another to be accused of copying each other.

“I got a message the other day on Instagram because I was in a suit because I was doing a corporate gig, and someone said, ‘Oh, you are doing a Rhys’,” he said.

“I’m just wearing a suit!”

There is also just a lot to be said about how Aussies still treat gay comedians, emphasis on the fact that the phrase “gay comedian” is still so often bandied around to describe either of them.

“It is so frustrating that if I mention my fiance on television, people will say, ‘he only does gay comedy’, but if a straight comic were to mention his wife, it wouldn’t be called that,” Creasey said.

Nicholson said they experience a similar syndrome when they tell jokes about their marriage during stand-up.

“It isn’t about gay marriage. It is about marriage. We get called ‘gay comedians’ but that isn’t a genre,” Nicholson argued.

‘Rise up out of the sh*t’

After their first meeting, there was instant chemistry that won out over any comedic rivalry, although they did once try to stage a Twitter spat in 2011, in hopes of getting famous.

That tactic didn’t quite work (they were ahead of their time; this was way before Ryan Murphy’s series Feud), but then Creasey landed a role on the reality television show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! and that jungle debut changed his life.

“When I did that reality show, I was a baby, whereas Rhys honed his craft; one of us wins prestige awards now, and I get to present prestige awards,” Creasey joked.

Creasey went from being a respected working comic to a mainstream success and, at the same time, Nicholson was still trying to make it, living in Sydney’s inner west and working at the Enmore Theatre’s box office.

Joel Creasey said going on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! changed his life. Picture: Supplied

Nicholson went for working at the Enmore Theatre to selling the venue out. Picture: Supplied

“You were the first person from our group to rise up out of the sh*t, but you pulled us all up out there with you. The amount of jobs I’ve gotten because you were always producing shows and putting us in them,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson did catch up to Creasey’s mainstream success, not so much by going on reality television, but by going viral for their appearance on US late-night talk show Conan O’Brien.

“He went from working at the box office to selling out the Enmore Theatre,” Creasey pointed out.

Creasey and Nicholson went from bonding over trying to make it, to bonding over trying to maintain the careers they had both worked so hard to achieve.

“We know plenty of people that have risen up and fallen down. Whereas Joel has stayed at this level, which is hard,” Nicholson explained.

“He is the only person I can speak with who has a similar experience,” Creasey said, referring to his friend.

“Stand-up is such a solo sport. You control everything, and it is part crowd control and also very exposing, and as a stand-up comic, we don’t really like sharing the stage.”

Creasey and Nicholson went from bonding over trying to make it to bonding over trying to maintain the careers they had both worked so hard to achieve. Picture: Supplied

The pair have made a choice to always tell each other what is happening in their respected careers. Picture: Supplied

‘The fact it works is very rare’

That has not stopped the two from getting together to host what has now become their annual Christmas tradition: combining forces for a stage show called Rhys’ and Joel’s Family Christmas.

“The fact that Rhys and I can do it and that fact that it works is very rare,” Creasey pointed out.

Some of that chemistry onstage stems from the fact that they both deeply trust each other and

part of that trust has been built because they’ve remained transparent with each other, even while competing for the same jobs.

Nicholson explained that the pair have a rule: they tell each other whether they’re up for the same show or gig, and how they’re progressing with it.

“The most proud of us I have been is when everyone wanted to host Drag Race Down Under and we knew it had gotten down to the two of us,” Creasey said.

Creasey said they both came to the pretty obvious conclusion that they could either be “nasty” to each other or “be really good friends” and talk about it every day.

The pair are putting on what has become their annual Christmas show. Picture: Supplied

They chose their friendship, and in 2021 it was announced that Nicholson had scored the gig and would be hosting the drag reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

Creasey said it sucked not getting the job, but he was really “thrilled” for his best mate and wouldn’t have wanted it to go to anyone else.

If you’re going to lose your dream job, you want it to go to someone good.

Creasey and Nicholson both admitted that the most challenging part of maintaining their friendship is not letting a “fairly unregulated” media industry tear them apart, but rather finding time for each other.

In between conflicting work schedules, grown-up commitments and life-partners, their Christmas Show this year, will double as a “catch-up between us”, Creasey promised.

Originally published as ‘It is so frustrating’: Comedians Joel Creasey and Rhys Nicholson on their careers and double standard we still see in Australia