Peter Helliar reveals his most lucrative stand-up gig

THE Project co-host has revealed the outrageous amount he was once paid to perform a 40-minute stand-up show for a bunch of corporates.

Peter Helliar’s latest stand-up show, One Hot Mess, has been his biggest show ever.

IF YOU’RE a comedian as popular as Peter Helliar, stand-up can be a very profitable occupation.

During a chat to promote his upcoming shows at the Sydney Opera House, the 41-year-old revealed what his most lucrative gig so far has been.

“I think I was paid something like $25,000 for a one-off 40-minute spot,” the funny man said to news.com.au.

“It was for a company with too much money when things were going well for them.”

Most people probably wouldn’t associate stand-up comedy with huge paydays, but Helliar said there’s plenty of money to be made, especially around the time of special events.

“AFL Grand Final mornings (in Melbourne) are good,” The Project co-host said.

“There was a bit of a golden age when I was a few years in where you were just running from gig to gig to gig to gig. You could make, well, I probably shouldn’t put a figure on it, but you could make A LOT of money in the morning.

“During that golden age I was probably doing five or six gigs at hotels near the MCG in the morning, but now I do about three.”

Helliar appears nightly on The Project with co-hosts Waleed Aly and Carrie Bickmore.

It’s not as if Helliar does stand-up for the money though, it’s because he loves it and because audiences love him ... well, most audience members do anyway.

“Somebody threw a saucepan at me once,” he said when asked about the worst audience reaction he’s received.

“I was doing a gig at a footy club reasonably early on in my career. It was me, Dave Hughes and Dave O’Neil and I had just gone on and somebody up the back near the kitchen threw a saucepan. It came out of nowhere ... it’s not as if I was doing any controversial kitchen based material!”

Helliar’s expecting a much more civilised crowd when he performs his current show, One Hot Mess, at the Sydney Opera House in September as part of Just For Laughs.

“I’d imagine if somebody throws a saucepan at me at the Opera House it will be a preconceived attack,” he joked.

“They would have had to think about it, get it through security ... If it happens at the Opera House it will have been months in the planning.”

Peter Helliar will perform One Hot Mess at the Sydney Opera House on September 8 and September 10. Ticket details here.