‘Still chasing that high’: Masked Singer judge Dave Hughes reveals why he traded drugs for comedy

Masked Singer judge and “addictive personality” Dave Hughes reveals how comedy replaced the high he used to get from booze and drugs, and why he’ll never forget his years of struggle.

DAVE Hughes still vividly remembers his first big laugh as a stand-up comedian.

It came in this third gig – the first two hadn’t gone so well – and he realised immediately he’d finally found something to replace the highs he’d lost when he gave up dope and booze just a few months earlier.

“I’m probably still chasing that high, to be honest,” Hughes says of his enduring love of stand-up, which he now juggles with radio commitments as part of the Hughesy, Ed and Erin show on the Hit Network and TV jobs such as The Masked Singer Australia, which returns to screens this Sunday.

The laid-back funny man says he gets “antsy” if he goes too long between stand-up gigs and regularly schedules club shows in his hometown of Melbourne and adopted home of Sydney, as well as being a regular fixture at festivals around the country.

“I’m an addictive personality,” he admits, “but I think it’s a healthy addiction. As long as I balance that with some family time … I often just pop out of the house saying ‘I’m just going to go out’ and then duck down to a comedy venue.

“It’s a lifelong passion and one that I will continue. It’s just a beautiful thing for me. When you’re on stage just with a microphone, I feel at home, which is great.”

Comedian Dave Hughes on the set of The Masked Singer

With his multimedia and performing demands, not to mention his parental duties to son Rafferty and daughters Sadie and Tess, Hughes is known as one of the hardest workers in the Australian entertainment industry, which is at odds to the slacker reputation he built his early career on. In hindsight, Hughes says he never deserved the moniker but thinks it arose from the jokes he used to make about his days on the dole.

“I do remember doing jokes about being on the dole, and another comedian said ‘what if you get rich and famous – you won’t be able to do those jokes anymore’,” Hughes recalls. And I’m like, ‘yeah, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it’. Which I did, basically.”

But for all his success and wealth (he famously shelled out $3 million for a house from The Block in 2018) after more than two decades on the airwaves and stints on The Panel, Australia’s Got Talent and Hughesy, We Have a Problem, those days of struggle are still nipping at his heels.

“I remember working as a labourer, or waiting for the next dole cheque to come in, so I find it hard to say no to work,” he says. “My wife says ‘we’ve got enough money’ and I say ‘we can never have enough money’.”

And it’s fair to say that, as a guesser on The Masked Singer, Hughes makes an excellent stand-up comedian. In four seasons of the reality TV singing competition show – in which celebrities perform under elaborate costumes and Hughes and his roster of panel-mates try to guess their identities from their voices – the veteran has only managed one successful reveal.

“We have had 50 mask reveals so far and I’ve got one, so if we go for another four years, I should get another one, hopefully,” he says with a laugh.

Chrissie Swan, Abbie Chatfield, Mel B and Dave Hughes for the 2022 season of the Masked Singer.

“I’m not even putting it on, and that’s the problem. I am not even pretending to be stupid. I just can’t hear the voices. I mean, I hear them, and they sing really well, but I just can’t recognise them.”

Hughes will be joined by three new guessers for this season of the Masked Singer, with the outgoing Dannii Minogue, Jackie O and Urzila Carlson replaced by Spice Girl Mel B, podcaster, broadcaster and former Bachelor star Abbie Chatfield, and TV and radio personality Chrissie Swan.

But if a recent taping is anything to go by, the one thing that remains unchanged from the previous line-up is that it’s still stacks on Dave from his all-female colleagues.

“I get the same thing at home,” Hughes says ruefully. “My daughters are really taken that ball and run with it. Every now and again at home I have to go ‘guys, we’re not on TV now – I really would like some respect’. I play a character on TV – in my house I would like some respect. But they just ignore me.”

Hughes knew Swan well before they shared the desk on The Masked Singer, having crossed paths regularly due to their TV and radio gigs, but the pair had never directly worked together. He was less familiar with Chatfield, but had admired her – and defended her – from afar since she first broke through as runner-up on the 2019 season of The Bachelor.

Dave Hughes and his wife Holly. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“I was outraged at the rocket scientist,” says Hughes of astrophysicist Matt Agnew’s failure to pick Chatfield in the finale. “The smart guy was rolling around in the sand with her and it looked like it was almost an adult film – and he didn’t pick her. That was unbelievable. You can’t not pick her after went on there.”

Hughes didn’t know Mel B (aka Melanie Brown) at all, but her reputation as Scary Spice preceded her and he says the pair butted heads (mostly in jest) over guesses and the global pop star’s in-built advantage courtesy of the ridiculously stacked contact list in her phone.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW GAME OF THRONES?

WHY ANGOURIE RICE IS TOP OF HER CLASS

‘WE’RE ALL LIVING IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER’

“She gives me a lot of stick on the panel,” says Hughes. “The casual observer might think that she’s out to destroy me but now we’re actually really good friends. She’s taking my wife and daughters to a theatre show in a couple of days – I can’t go because I’m working – but it’s ‘we don’t want you there anyway’. She’s a real character and good fun.”

The Masked Singer Australia, Sunday, 7.30pm, Channel 10

.

Originally published as ‘Still chasing that high’: Masked Singer judge Dave Hughes reveals why he traded drugs for comedy