11th April 2013
Jizz receipts. An accountant shoving a pen up his arse and jizzing on tax receipts.
That and "Betsy" his stomach, which he lifted up his t-shirt to show the audience.
Welcome to Tom Ballard's standup.
As is something of a theme for me I seemed to find his show more funny than some of the other bits of the audience. Maybe as Ballard said it's because it was a Thursday crowd and fairly early in the evening (7pm) so everyone hasn't been lubricated with alcohol and won't enjoy the more risqué elements of his standup.
But I've seen several I Love Green Guide Letters and The Little Dum Dum Club recordings that are on early (4.15 and 7.15 respectively) so maybe it's just that the this was the audience's first show of the evening and they've not been warmed up enough to enjoy Ballard's show.
Regardless, I enjoyed it even if the audience didn't at times.
Ballard's show is broadly about himself and his drive and desire for attention. Ballard skips over his back history of his drive and desire for attention early in his life fairly quickly. If this were a TV show imagine it all done in about 2 paragraphs (actually that's more like a book...anyways) and a quick montage probably with some slow motion and flash bulbs.
I did actually know some of this having listened to Tom and Alex's podcasts that they released prior to taking on the breakfast roles at Triple J.
Though perhaps he's relying on people knowing this from previous shows, I'm not sure.
I've mentioned in previous posts that I enjoy a narrative structure to a comedian's show. It can be a loose or a tight narrative, but I like that there's a something holding the standup together.
With Ballard's show, built around a subject I think it works quite well, everything holds together.
Although I didn't get a huge sense of his ego from his show, but I did gain some insights into how he, and how comedians think.
Ballard was also very at ease, calm and awake, interacting with the audience and on the ball. I mention this only because he does breakfast radio, so the show is on at 7pm, which I assume is so he can go from the show to bed, it's still a fairly long day, considering he basically then spends his whole day being engaging and funny on demand.
I think Ballard’s standup and his personality works better with a tuned in crowd, and I’m not sure that the audience was on Thursday night.
When he was on Episode 65 of I Love Green Guide Letters I feel the audience responded better to him than the audience that I was in on Thursday night. I would see Ballard again, his experiences, opinions and ideas still amuse me, his outlook is honest and somewhat innocent, almost antipathetically so.
Jizz receipts. An accountant shoving a pen up his arse and jizzing on tax receipts.
That and "Betsy" his stomach, which he lifted up his t-shirt to show the audience.
Welcome to Tom Ballard's standup.
As is something of a theme for me I seemed to find his show more funny than some of the other bits of the audience. Maybe as Ballard said it's because it was a Thursday crowd and fairly early in the evening (7pm) so everyone hasn't been lubricated with alcohol and won't enjoy the more risqué elements of his standup.
But I've seen several I Love Green Guide Letters and The Little Dum Dum Club recordings that are on early (4.15 and 7.15 respectively) so maybe it's just that the this was the audience's first show of the evening and they've not been warmed up enough to enjoy Ballard's show.
Regardless, I enjoyed it even if the audience didn't at times.
Ballard's show is broadly about himself and his drive and desire for attention. Ballard skips over his back history of his drive and desire for attention early in his life fairly quickly. If this were a TV show imagine it all done in about 2 paragraphs (actually that's more like a book...anyways) and a quick montage probably with some slow motion and flash bulbs.
I did actually know some of this having listened to Tom and Alex's podcasts that they released prior to taking on the breakfast roles at Triple J.
Though perhaps he's relying on people knowing this from previous shows, I'm not sure.
I've mentioned in previous posts that I enjoy a narrative structure to a comedian's show. It can be a loose or a tight narrative, but I like that there's a something holding the standup together.
With Ballard's show, built around a subject I think it works quite well, everything holds together.
Although I didn't get a huge sense of his ego from his show, but I did gain some insights into how he, and how comedians think.
Ballard was also very at ease, calm and awake, interacting with the audience and on the ball. I mention this only because he does breakfast radio, so the show is on at 7pm, which I assume is so he can go from the show to bed, it's still a fairly long day, considering he basically then spends his whole day being engaging and funny on demand.
I think Ballard’s standup and his personality works better with a tuned in crowd, and I’m not sure that the audience was on Thursday night.
When he was on Episode 65 of I Love Green Guide Letters I feel the audience responded better to him than the audience that I was in on Thursday night. I would see Ballard again, his experiences, opinions and ideas still amuse me, his outlook is honest and somewhat innocent, almost antipathetically so.