Pay Attention To Me

Time flies. It's been four years since comedian Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson began dominating the weekday airwaves from 6am to 9am on triple j, but despite having to haul himself out of bed at 4am and go to sleep before most comedy clubs even open, radio work hasn't dulled Ballard's enthusiasm for the spotlight and microphone.

“I'm really dedicated to keep doing stand-up,” he says. “triple j have been very supportive of that, but breakfast radio and stand-up pretty much happen at the exact opposite ends of the day. But it's worth it to spread laughter to the people.”

It's a hard slog for Ballard to juggle his on-air duties with the annual comedy festival circuit but he perseveres, despite the copious amounts of nanna naps and dealing with unbidden grumpiness. He says, however, that the main problem attached to pumping out 15 hours of radio content a week is creative burnout.

“Around the time of year when I have to start writing my festival show it can get hard to focus,” he says. “I just want to get home from doing radio and watch DVDs, masturbate, eat something and have a nap. I'm human – if you prick me, do I not bleed? So yes, it can be tough trying to create outside of that and come to the show with enough energy to make it fun.”

This year, however, Ballard's come up with a winner – a show called My Ego Is Better Than Your Ego, born of a year's worth of introspection which yielded the conclusion that the young comic indeed has a raging ego problem.

“Over the last 12 months, I've been questioning why I do comedy, and the obvious answer is for attention. It's important to me that people like me. That's fundamentally why I do it. I love making people laugh and creating stuff and making people think and feel happy, but the initial impulse to perform is just a desperate need for attention and validation from other people.”

Ballard's spent the whole of his short life so far seeking validation through entertaining people. First off, he did musical theatre when he was a kid, then had a bash at acting, then public speaking which led to comedy and the radio hosting gig. But he says there is a downside to this – the fact that comedy is subjective and many people will hate what you do, and not be shy about letting you know on the internet.

“I've been asking myself why do comedians, who are often sensitive and needy people, put themselves in situations where criticism is inevitable?” he says. “But they're all the same – no matter how edgy a comedian is, or how different they claim to be from all the sell-out mainstream comedians, every comedian wants people to laugh at their stuff and find it funny. I realise how indulgent it is to do an hour-long stand-up show about 'Shut up, look at me, listen to me as my amplified voice booms at you for an hour and I expect you to laugh' – but that's the way I go about things.”