The List

Tom Ballard: Be Funny Challenge (impossible) [wip]

Tom Ballard: Be Funny Challenge (impossible) [wip]
Melbourne comedy festival & Edinburgh comedy award nominee

As seen on Fisk and Deadloch. As heard on Radio 4 and The Bugle.

After a year away from touring, doing nothing but being nice and uncontroversial, Australia's Special Envoy For Comedy Tom Ballard returns in 2026 with a new show packed with jokes about war and being naughty and being kind and just how extremely normal everything is right now.

You should definitely come along. What's the worst that could happen????

"One of the slickest hours of stand-up I've ever seen." Adam Hills

"Fierce and funny...Ballard is a dynamo - a whirling, toe-curling bundle of energy, who is as politically powerful as he is fantastically funny." ½ Arts Hub

"A relentless whirl of opinion, silliness, and increasingly bad-taste jokes against those who most deserve it." ½ Chortle \[UK\]

"He cuts a faintly ludicrous, pathetic figure" The Scotsman \[UK\]

"To call Ballard a comedian is being kind.....All he has is a potty mouth" hair stew, Daily Mail commenter

Presented by IAM

This is an 18+ event

Where & when

No performances found.

Event data provided by DataThistle