jks: a comedy(?) is a new play by comedian Tom Ballard that delves into the world of comedy and what it means to be funny. Long listed for the 2025 Griffin Playwriting Award, the production will feature a brilliant cast of comedic actors, including Ballard himself, Kevin Hofbauer (Hour of the Wolf, The Comeuppance), Jordan Barr (triple j Weekend Breakfast), Tiana Hogben (Thank God You’re Here, Summer Love) and beloved stand-up powerhouse Nicky Barry (Corey White’s Roadmap to Paradise).
No stranger to speaking his mind, Ballard says he has been toying with the idea of a play about exploring the nitty gritty of joke telling for some time.
“This play has been brewing in my head for years, as I’ve observed (and valiantly fought in) the endless culture war over comedy, “wokeness” and free speech. If you’re a comedian, it’s almost impossible to avoid the subject in your work, or just in day-to-day conversation. I realised that after countless arguments – and after having had a joke scandal or two – I’d found myself on almost every side of the various arguments, so it all felt like a rich, messy territory for a play, and a great opportunity to get a whole lot of stuff off my chest. ”
Ballard says the writing process has been extremely cathartic. “There’s something very satisfying about exploring your messy feelings about a big something – in this case, the nature of jokes and offence – by having a group of characters hash it out for you. Every character in this play says at least one thing about the ethics of comedy that I heartily agree with (and plenty of things I don’t), which feels like a good sign that the show is getting into the juicy stuff, and not letting the audience walk away with easy answers.”
Given all of that, Ballard admits that he’s quite pleasantly surprised that the play has ended up as something of a love letter to stand-up, and to comedians. “I’ve been reminded that I really do love nothing more than hanging out with other comics, talking shit, and finding out what they think about the world. Whatever they say might be hilarious, offensive, or insane – but at least it’s never boring.”
Ballard says the idea of a play about comedians hanging out backstage entered his head as far back as 2022, but he didn’t get around to actually bashing it out on the page until the end of last year, when he submitted the first twenty pages for the 2025 Griffin Award. “It was long listed for that prize, which was really encouraging, and gave me the push I needed to write a full draft and work towards a production for Melbourne Fringe.”
Ballard is no different to many writers when he says the biggest challenge thus far has been editing.
“Turns out I have QUITE A LOT TO SAY on this subject matter, and the first read-through we did with the cast went for 110 minutes, and involved my character having a four-page monologue. What a wanker.
Thanks to the very smart actors and our brilliant director Ben Russell, we’re now hacking away at all the fat to make sure it’s a lean and cracking 70 minutes.”
At its heart, says Ballard, the play is asking some key questions about the art of comedy: what is it for? What do we expect from and mean by the jokes we tell? And in all those places where comedy and politics intersect, what freedoms and responsibilities do we think comedians deserve?
“The answers to those questions are entirely up for debate, of course – and I hope audiences will see that debate play out (with lots of jokes!) amongst the five comics, who come at these questions from very different places.
Having said that, I think the play does land quite firmly on one point in particular, which is: in comedy – as in all artforms – being closed off to new ideas and new ways of thinking inevitably leads to reactionary crap, and creative death. I believe it’s on all comedians – and on all audiences! – to always be asking questions of how things are, and to always remain open to the new.”
Stuffed full of a support crew of stand-up funnies, Ballard says the cast for the play had to strike a certain balance. “We needed people with enough experience in the world of stand-up and/or live comedy to really get it, but who also had the acting chops to do the proper theatre stuff. Thankfully – we lucked out on both fronts.
I didn’t know Kevin or Tiana personally. I’d seen Kev in some shows at Red Stitch and thought he was fantastic, and always felt he’d be great for Jase; while he’s a total sweetheart in real life, he has this ability to key into an aggressive alpha energy which was exactly what we were after. My director Ben suggested asking Tiana to play May, having known her from the improv, Thank God You’re Here worlds – and she’s turned out to be a perfect fit, too.
Jordan Barr and Nicky Barry are mates of mine from the stand-up scene. They were kind enough to participate in a workshop we did for the play a few months ago, and I was able to use some of the stories and opinions they shared there to inform the characters of Rhi and Chris. I was delighted when they agreed to join the cast to play those two women; no, those characters aren’t exactly Jordan and Nicky – but they share a fair bit of DNA.”
As far as what it means to be funny to Ballard? Well, it seems the bottom line is the truth and nothing but.
“I think that the comedy I really love – the stuff of my own I’m most proud of, the comedy I remember, and the stuff that really makes me laugh the hardest – has always got something to do with telling the truth. My favourite stand-ups are the ones who seem to be able to say something real and true about being alive; comics who can blast through bullshit and help me clearly see ideas or feelings that I’ve always known deep down, but have never been able to articulate. Daniel Kitson is the greatest at this, but I’m also thinking of acts like Simon Amstell, Josie Long, Maria Bamford, Stewart Lee, Chris Rock, Nish Kumar, Aziz Ansari, Wanda Sykes and Damien Power (and heaps of others).
I think that’s why I just can’t get on board jokes that rely on stereotypes or misrepresentations or clichés – they’re just not true, so I’m never going to be able to find them really funny. Or at least, they’re certainly not going to burrow into my brain and stay with me forever, like my favourite routines of all time do.
Now I say all this – but then I also remember laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe while watching Tim Vine at the Melbourne Comedy Festival Club perform his “Pen Behind The Ear” routine, in which he tried to flick a pen into the air so it would land behind his ear, all while he played a song that just repeated the phrase “PEN! BEHIND! THE EAR! PEN! BEHIND! THE EAR!”. I don’t think that was saying anything true about anything…but I didn’t give a shit. It was just so bloody funny.”
As well as being an award-winning stand-up, Ballard is a broadcaster, actor and writer. Since becoming the youngest ever winner of the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer Award, Ballard has performed stand-up all over the world, So what would this now 35 year old man tell that Dux of 2007 who briefly toyed with the idea of law before becoming a fully fledged funny guy?
“I’d tell Little Tom to ENJOY BEING UNKNOWN AND SHIT. When you start out as a hungry young comic you’re so desperate to get attention/views/screen time, you’re impatient for it – but if I had my time again, I’d just enjoy the process of trying lots of different styles of comedy and revel in the fact that no-one knew who I was nor cared if I was good or rubbish. That’s a kind of freedom that I don’t think I appreciated at the time.
It’s clichéd, but the most influential thing I’ve learnt over my time as a comedian is the importance of finding, refining, strengthening and staying true to your voice. In the same way life is this crazy-long journey to figure out who you are as a person, your career in comedy is a crazy-long journey to figure out what makes you funny, in a truly unique way. We all start out doing impressions of our heroes, but the key is to try to keep digging deeper and deeper inside your own silly head until you land on joke subjects, ideas and structures that you can honestly say: yep, that’s me. ”
Stand-up, very much like all manner of live performance, is an almost symbiotic relationship between audience and act – one can’t exist without the other – but it’s those rare magic moments that last.
“I managed to get this into the play: my absolute favourite moment when performing live stand-up is when you’re having such a great gig that you actually have to wait for the audience to finish laughing before you can tell your next joke. Those moments can be quite rare, but every now and again, everything in the universe just lines up and you find yourself in a moment of real freedom and connection with a crowd – and it’s the BEST.
In my worst moments, I find myself hating or resenting the audience – for not laughing enough, or for laughing at a cheap joke, or just because I’m burnt out. But at my best, I remind myself that me and the audience are actually all on the same team – and that’s when stand-up can feel particularly magical. ”
For Ballard, ddoing stand-up has pretty much guaranteed him a life in which he laughs (almost) every day. “I get to hang out with some of the funniest human beings on the planet, and I travel the country and the world talking absolute nonsense, in order to make people feel good (or at least, a little bit better, for a short period of time).
It’s economically precarious and can be brutal on one’s liver – but gee whizz, it’s a pretty remarkable way to live your life. Can’t complain.”
A weekly stand-up gig. A Tuesday night. Backstage. A line-up of comedians are hanging out, trading jokes, and talking shit.
It’s all fun and games…until they hear the news that a comedy legend has died. Depending on who you ask, he either leaves behind a lifetime of laughter, or a legacy of bigotry and pain. Or maybe both. Or neither.
The comics get stuck in: was this guy actually funny, or just embarrassing? Should he be praised or cancelled? Is being “funny” all that matters, anyway? What’s even the point of telling jokes? How much harm (or good) can they ever do? How dark and fucked up can you go? Who can say what – and who decides?
Written by award-winning snowflake Tom Ballard (Deadloch, Tonightly, Fisk, Serious Danger) and directed by the beloved Ben Russell (Thank God You’re Here, The Grub, Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House Of Fun), jks: a comedy(?) is the world premiere of a naughty, thoughtful and hilarious new work for Melbourne Fringe.
Says Ballard, “I sincerely think that jks: a comedy(?) will make audiences laugh, think…and maybe even gasp. I’m really proud of the show, I think the cast are fantastic, and there’s a decent chance the season will fill up – so BOOK NOW, please and thank you.”
October 1 – 12
melbournefringe.com.au
