Q&A: Tom Gleeson, 44, comedian

Comedian Tom Gleeson on his boarding school background, discovering insult comedy and the joys of disdain.

Tom Gleeson. Pic: Josh Robenstone

Being publicly humiliated by you has become a badge of honour. Could I trouble you for a tailor-made insult? I don’t want to put too much effort into thinking of an insult because it’s going to be printed in The Australian and no one will read it.

Ouch. On The Weekly’s Hard Chat, you’ve torn shreds off guests including Sophie Monk, Lee Lin Chin and Karl Stefanovic. How do you prepare? I imagine myself opposite them and think of all the horrible things I should never ask them and then I ask those things. I’m like a stunt man: I know how much more entertaining it is if I operate without any limits.

When did you discover insult comedy? I went to boarding school from the age of 11 and we used to pay each other out mercilessly. The more horrible you were about someone’s weakness meant the more you liked them. Then when I started stand-up, a mate said he found me funnier when I was being horrible backstage than when I was “pretending” to be nice on stage. I thought, “Let’s see how far I can push being an arsehole”.

Is the title of your new stand-up show, Joy, ironic? My shows are so sarcastic and nasty and I go really hard but there’s something fun about breaking the rules, about being evil. They are a joy to perform. The last season of Hard Quiz was the highest rating we’ve had; I wrote an email to the staff saying, “Who would have thought there was so much joy in disdain?”

How do you get away with being so mean? I don’t quite understand it. A Hard Quiz contestant who later came on as a writer thought it might be some sort of Stockholm syndrome — the more I made fun of him the more drawn to me he was.

Your children are seven and four. Is your parenting mantra “Do as I say, not as I do”? A couple of years ago, on Hard Chat, I started paying out Charlie Pickering. My daughter doesn’t like conflict so she was covering her ears. They understand now that sometimes I say rude things to be silly.

You entertained the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006. Why? I wasn’t happy about the invasion of Iraq but rather than getting angry I thought it would be more interesting to talk to people who were actually there. I thought I would have nothing in common with military people but when I got over there it was almost like they were just normal people. Also, if you can make fun of people with guns, someone who is slightly sarcastic in the front row of a stand-up gig doesn’t seem so frightening.

How did a science degree from Sydney Uni turn into a comedy career? I went in a stand-up competition hosted by Adam Spencer and some of the Chaser lads were in it and they were all hopeless and I ended up winning $500. I was probably 21 at the time and I thought, “This is easy”. By the time I graduated it was pretty clear what I was going to do.

You campaigned for Grant Denyer to win the Gold Logie last year. Any regrets? Denyer’s show, Family Feud, had been axed and was up against Hard Quiz for most popular entertainment program. At first I was genuinely angry because anything that defies maths really gives me the shits. The idea that you can win on a show that isn’t popular doesn’t make sense. Once I realised it would be a hilarious farce if he did win, I started campaigning for him. It was a funny feeling when he won: I felt proud and ashamed simultaneously.

Joy tours nationally throughout 2019. Hard Quiz returns to ABC and ABC iview on Jan 30; The Weekly’s Hard Chat is back early this year.