Not So Little

With two TV shows – This Week Live and A League Of Their Own – currently airing on Ten, radio duties for Nova Melbourne, and an ongoing commitment to stand-up performances, it doesn't require much thought to deduce that Tommy Little is a busy man. As such I preface our conversation by thanking him for taking the time. Or at least, I try to – Little all but beats me to the punch, and after settling jinxes explains:

“Mate, the problem is that this chat might be shit, so that's why I have to thank you at the start, because then if I bore you I don't feel so bad because I've been polite up front. I'll say thanks at the front, and the apologise at the end if it's been no good.”

Little has been making a living off good conversation, occasionally a little one-sided, as in his latest stand up show, Sex, Drugs & Herbal Tea – which returns to Sydney for one night only this month – but also with fellow comedians Tom Gleeson and Dave Thornton on This Week Live, Ten's latest comedy-driven panel show.

With all three bringing solo stand-up shows to Sydney in coming weeks, I ask Little if it's all caused a little healthy competition, this opportunity to get away from the others and hold the spotlight for a night.

“The only thing you've got wrong is the friendly part. I don't think there's ever been anything friendly about our competition, and this will just be a continuation of that!” jokes Little.

“The stage is my lifeblood,” Little adds with a lot more sincerity. “It's the thing I am most passionate about and it's almost therapy for the other things. Because you have all these creative ideas and as soon as you're involved in something like a TV show or even to a lesser extent a radio show, there are so many influences – whether that be producers, whether that be people from the network – there's so many filters you have to go through to get your ideas out there that it's just so refreshing to stand up live in front of audience, say stuff straight from your stupid brain to their faces and not have anyone tell you what you can or can't do or what's suitable or not suitable. It's the thing that keeps me sane. I started out in stand-up and just having done a lot of TV and radio this year, it's almost reignited that.”

Was doing a comedy show about being young and dumb the key to entering successful adulthood? Sex, Drugs & Herbal Tea was a sell-out in Adelaide and Melbourne, and has catapulted Little into a new realm of fame.

“Well the first pay I got from Channel Ten I bought a Buck Hunter machine,” Little reflects, pausing. “I think I'm probably still young and dumb. I have no interest in being anything but dumb for a while.”