Harley Breen spills on his year alongside Em Rusciano on the 2DAY FM breakfast show

HARLEY Breen lasted just one year hosting the 2DAY FM breakfast show with Em Rusciano. Now he’s opened up about what really went on behind the scenes.

HARLEY Breen has opened up about his year on radio with Em Rusciano.

The popular comedian lasted just one year as Rusciano’s co-host on the 2 DAY FM breakfast show before announcing last November he was quitting to focus on stand-up comedy.

True to his word, he’s just finished touring his latest stand-up show, Flat Out Doing Nothing, in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth and is heading to Sydney next week for four shows only.

Speaking to news.com.au to promote his upcoming gigs, the funny man was happy to talk about his turbulent year in radio which was plagued by poor ratings and rumours of a rift with his Rusciano.

“There’s a weird part of the breakfast radio world; when you’re in it, you think that’s all anyone is thinking about, but actually it’s all you’re thinking about,” Breen said when asked about his time at 2 DAY FM. “The rest of the world doesn’t give a f**k that it exists.”

Breen said his year on radio “was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be” and that he never planned to stick around for a long time, adding, “it’s never been a career goal”.

When he announced he was leaving the radio show on air late last year, Rusciano sounded genuinely upset that she was losing him as a co-host.

“I’m very sad you’re leaving,” Rusciano said on air. “We’re great mates. Obviously everyone will be shocked, but I’m still here.”

But when asked if he and Rusciano have kept in touch since he left the show, Breen laughed and said, “ah, no, we haven’t been hanging out for spritz’s in the afternoon”.

Harley Breen is performing in Sydney next week.

There were whispers in the radio world that Breen and Rusciano had a rocky relationship and there was a persistent rumour that the two co-hosts stopped speaking to each other off air for a week at one stage.

“Well, I didn’t really make a point of spending a lot of time talking to her off air,” Breen said when asked about the rumour. “But I don’t really talk to a lot of people off air.

“There were moments during the show last year where it was tough at times on air because of some off air behaviours, but I think what we did achieve is we kept the show going, other than one particular day where she had to walk out of the studio.”

Breen was referring to an incident that took place in May last year when Rusciano said on air shortly after 7am one morning, “I can’t do this,” and left the studio.

“This is the way I deal with conflict, especially with a conflict that I don’t think needs a lot of energy, I just go, ‘oh well, that’s happening’,” Breen said.

“It wasn’t my show or product ... if something happens in my live show then I approach that immediately, whereas on that show, if there’s a lot of tension being created, I go, ‘you can sit in that tension and I’ll just turn up on time and try and do my job as best I can’.”

It might sound as if Breen had a miserable time last year, but that’s not the case, he says.

“For me it was learning a new skill and that’s always beneficial. You have to be up early in the morning and you have to be on and you have to force your brain to make comment on things, certainly make comments on things that I just didn’t care about, and it trains you to be a sharper, quicker wit.

“From that point of view it created a lot of growth. It also provided me with a nice bit of money to take the stress off a little bit because it’s pretty stressful being a touring stand-up,” he said.

Breen touches on his year in radio in his latest stand-up show, but don’t expect to hear any juicy behind-the-scenes stories about nightmare celebrities or dirt on his former co-host.

“It’s about being flat out but doing f**k all,” he laughed. “Can you print that?

“It’s about, in my experience both personally and the way I see the world, that men are flat out but they’re not actually doing anything, they’re not actually engaging in life,” he said. “There’s a lot of avoidance, at least in the men I witness anyway.

“I also talk about marijuana, doing poos and having a wank. So you know, all the important things.”

Harley Breen will be performing his latest show, Flat Out Doing Nothing, at The Comedy Store in Sydney from May 17 to May 20. Ticket details here.