Tom Ballard planned to move to the UK ... until his life changed

Tom Ballard thought he was going to be the greatest actor of his generation. Now, he’s just happy to be back on stage for a “greatest hits” type show for the Chapel Off Chapel Comedy Specials on Paramount+.

How exactly does one come to record a comedy special? Does the network approach you and say, “You’re fantastic, we wish to make you a special”, or do you have to pitch it to them?

Well, I’m regularly getting calls from people just telling me how great I am and how keen they are to work with me, so … This series came about from [talent management company] Token wanting to do specials, and it being a little while since local comedians had done specials – the last one I did was in 2017 with the Stan* special. I think economies of scale, they thought, if they could take over a nice pretty venue like Chapel Off Chapel and get four done within a week – we all got a dry run with the cameras and then record the actual thing. I hadn’t put a lot of material on tape for quite a while, and the chance to shoot it in a really nice venue, in front of an intimate crowd, was a good one. And I got to collate material from my last three or four shows, just pick my favourites out of those to make a new hour.

Tom Ballard: “I did my first gig when I was 14 years old, which is ridiculous and should be illegal”.Credit: Simon Schluter

So this is like a Greatest Hits show – or at least Greatest Hits of the Last Few Years.

I guess that’s how I thought of it. A lot of my material in last year’s show was very topical, and if this thing’s going to be seen overseas by people eventually, they won’t know or care about those topics. But also, just going back to my show in 2017, these routines were fun to do, and they’ve never ended up on tape anywhere, so hopefully I’ve managed to put that hour together, and it’s a bunch of stuff that I really love doing.

Does it change your process in any way when you know you’re performing for cameras, or are we seeing exactly the same show you’d be doing if it were just for the punters in the room?

Well, there are some legal considerations when you’re in front of a camera. There is a team of lawyers that make some suggestions.

That must be helpful.

Yeah, we love it! That’s why I got into showbiz: to consult with lawyers and really just round all the edges on everything. But I will say that generally speaking, the creative freedom we got on this was pretty remarkable, so there’s some pretty dark stuff in there and most of the material is pretty much as is when performed live.

COVID had a pretty big impact on the industry. How badly were you affected professionally by the pandemic?

Well, being conscious of not playing a tiny violin when people died and lost everything, it certainly upset everything. I was going to move to the UK in 2020, planned to make the move there permanently and have a crack at that. So that did not occur. Taking time away from performing live for a while gave me a lot of space to reconsider what I want to do, what’s important, what I do and don’t want to keep carrying on with. But I must say, through some bullshit comedian loophole, the amount of government support we received was pretty substantial. So that was a pretty good deal. So I feel like I can’t complain too much.

Ballard says he’s now wedded to Australia.Credit: Eddie Jim

Are you still planning to move to the UK?

Probably not – my life’s changed in that period, I have a long-term partner now, I’m pretty Australia-wedded. I’ve got a mortgage. I would love to go back, I loved performing over there, the scene over there is pretty wild, the chance to tour a bit more would be great.

If I recall your career correctly, you rose to the top at a very young age.

What do you mean the top?

Well, from where I’m sitting everyone’s at the top. I get a crick in my neck looking at them. But you did emerge quite young. How old were you when you did your first stand-up gig?

I did my first gig when I was 14 years old, which is ridiculous and should be illegal. It was through the Class Clowns competition that the Comedy Festival runs at high schools. I was already obsessed with acting and theatre and performing, and reckoned I was going to be the greatest actor of my generation, and then the Class Clowns happened and I was kind of like, “Oh, this is another chance to get on stage and get some more attention. I’ll do this for a little while and then I’ll go into NIDA and revolutionise the very concept of art and theatre.”

There’s still time for that.

There’s still time. It’s a process.

Chapel Off Chapel Comedy Specials are on Paramount+ from April 1.

* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.

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