Hughes first tried comedy in 1994, shortly after having joined the band Nazxul, Hughes quit Nazxul and left Australia for Ireland in 1999, then moved on to London, then on to
Manchester where he stayed in a house with fellow Aussie comic
Jim Jefferies before finally settling in
Manchester in 2002. Hughes has also cited having been influenced by the comedy of
Richard Pryor,
Dave Allen,
George Carlin and
Eddie Murphy. He often wears all-black, including a
leather jacket,
concert t-shirt and jeans. Hughes comedy sets often contain social commentary including criticisms of
political correctness, religion, war, drug laws, He is also known for discussing ideas in the
conspiracy theory realm, and adopted this title for one of his comedy tours in 2011. Hughes's stand-up has been featured at such festivals as the
Edinburgh Comedy Festival in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival and
Live at the Apollo in 2011. and appeared on an episode of
UKTV's ''
Dave's One Night Stand'' featuring Hunter that originally aired on 1 December 2011. Hughes also supported
Belgian comedian
Alex Agnew on his 2011 "Larger than Life" best-of tour. After touring non-stop for four years and averaging more than 150 shows a year, Hughes took a break for health reasons. During this hiatus he quit both drugs and alcohol
cold turkey and cut his long hair short. He returned to the comedy stage in 2014. ==Television and film==