Tom Ballard (comedian)

Thomas Colin Ballard was born in 1989 in Warrnambool, Victoria, and grew up there. He attended Brauer Secondary College, graduating in 2007 as School Captain and Dux and achieving an Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank of 99.80 in his Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). In 2006, when he was still at school, he submitted an essay to the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, titled "We Have More to Fear From the State than From Terrorists: Who's Afraid of Terrorism?", which won its 2006 Human Writes Essay Competition, open to all year 11 and 12 students across Victoria. Also while at school, he won the Victorian plain English speaking competition; was presenting regularly on Triple J radio; was one of a school team which won the Apex Australian national debating final; was chosen to attend the National Schools Constitutional Convention in Canberra; as one of a team of three won the national mooting championship; and, after selection as one of the top theatre students in Victoria, performed in Top Acts at a local theatre. During his VCE year, Ballard competed in and won the VCAA's Plain English Speaking Award with a speech titled "bullying.com". He went on to place second in the national competition to Daniel Swain, with the two being chosen to represent Australia in the International Public Speaking Competition held in London in May 2008. He was also awarded the VCAA's 2007 VCE Achiever's Award. His success in the public speaking competition and his activism with school and local youth communities on topics such as anti-homosexuality and cyberbullying helped earn him the Achiever's Award. but found his life too busy, after presenting his debut solo show at the Comedy Festival as well as presenting on radio. ==Career==

Stand-up comedy Ballard was a three-time Class Clowns national finalist in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, He performed across Victoria as part of the Young Blood Comedy Tour in 2007, and had a guest spot in the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Eskimo Jokes show. He also performed in the 2008 Comedy Festival as part of the Comedy Zone, Ballard performed his first stand-up show in 2009, entitled Tom Ballard Is What He Is, "about growing up and coming out in regional Victoria. He has performed stand-up in festivals, on television, and on tours around the country, In 2015, he toured his show Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred, which he based on a 2013 homophobic incident directed at him in a taxi in Newcastle, around various comedy festivals, In 2017, his show Problematic was one of three best-reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. After being noticed in the Raw Comedy event, Ballard and Dyson were recruited by Triple J to host the midnight to dawn show, then the weekday summer lunch slot (10 am to 2 pm), from 2009, the breakfast show (6 am to 10 am). In November 2013, Ballard resigned from Triple J after seven years with the station, to focus on his stand-up comedy. The show was dropped from the ABC line-up and aired for the last time on 7 September 2018, following an ABC review which determined the show failed to meet a quality threshold. He was cast in Deadloch Appearances as self Ballard has also appeared on The Project, Spicks and Specks, It's a Date, and Celebrity Mastermind (2020). Podcasts Ballard wrote and broadcast the podcast ''Like I'm A Six-Year-Old'' for eight years, from around 2015 until May 2023. Ballard co-hosts the left-leaning political podcast Serious Danger, with Emerald Moon, "about our broken political system and its greatest threat, the Australian Greens". The 100th episode was performed live in Melbourne on 18 November 2023. ==Political views and advocacy==

Ballard makes no secret of the fact that he is left-leaning politically. He endorsed the Victorian Socialists for the 2018 Victorian state election. In a 2020 tweet he revealed that he was a member of the Australian Greens. He has also criticised specific commentary, policies, and people, including: • In 2012, Ballard published "My Letter to Miranda Devine" in which he strongly criticised Devine for writing that "the ideal situation for a child to be raised in is an intact family with a father and a mother". • In 2016, Ballard signed an open letter to the editors of The Australian newspaper condemning that paper's decision to publish a Bill Leak cartoon depicting a neglectful Aboriginal father. • In 2017, Ballard campaigned for marriage equality ahead of the same-sex marriage plebiscite in Australia. ==Personal life==

Ballard is gay. Ballard describes himself as "gay Gen Y middle-class public school-educated son of left-leaning-parents." He is an atheist and critic of religion. He and comedian Josh Thomas were each other's first boyfriend. As their two-and-a-half-year relationship was ending in 2010, Thomas was on tour with his show Surprise, "all about being young, gay and in love for the first time". Ballard premiered his show, Since 1989, at the Belvoir St Theatre the following year. Dealing with his childhood and first relationship, and largely written prior to the break-up, Ballard described the experience as giving him "an element of closure". his partner is Harley, whom he met in early 2020. He has a fixie road bike, and has never owned a car. but the police had told him that the actions he had reported had been within the law. and placed his hand on his (Ballard's) penis. He said he had only become aware of the claim that the sexual interaction was not consensual around six months earlier. ==Filmography==

Albums ==Awards and nominations==

Ballard has won two ARIA Music Awards, a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Other awards and nominations include: • National finalist, Raw Comedy == Publications ==