Tom Ballard hits the stage of his debut show Tom Ballard Is What He Is with energy and enthusiam. He kicks off with some quick, casual banter with an audience member in the front which, although simple, goes oddly awry when the punter incists, rather tersely, that his name is GaryJesus, not just Gary as Tom had called him. Tom negotiates this and some other oddness by GaryJesus well and manages to maintain his cool even though GaryJesus (front row centre) scowled at him for the rest of the show. Ahh, these things happen.
Tom’s show is all about his sexual awakening and his coming out as homosexual. He kicks off the show proper with an impressive list of alternate terms for ‘gay’, starting with the relatively innocuous terms like ‘poofter’ and working up to those on the more robust end of the spectrum. Tom tells stories of his home town Warrnambool, his schooldays, including some very early hetrosexual experiences and the process of his gender orientation slowly dawning on him. He also describes the awkwardness of telling his family and friends, with a particularly moving, and funny, sequence about telling his parents. His material is mostly fairly tame in content, but he does come close to the line, teetering on the edge, with a joke about HIV. He does manage to make it work though. Peppered through the story are pop cultural references, many of which betray Tom’s youth and all of these stories come equipped with punchy, regular jokes.
Tom is a good young stand up, and at times, when in full flight he reminds me of a young Kent Valentine or Justin Hamilton, which tells me that he’s on the right track. The one major criticism I would make of him is that he often pauses, a bit too long, between points, creating the impression that he is trying to recall his next point. This disrupts the rhythm and timing of the show a little, but he’s so young, and this is his debut full length show, it surely just a matter of time till this tendency dissapears.
Overall, this is a good strong show from a solid young comedian. Don’t miss this chance to see him because in Tom’s case, it’s certainly a matter of “I saw him back when..”
For more info or booking details go to Tom Ballard Is What He Is