Tom Ballard (comedian)
Tom Ballard (b.1989) is an Australian radio presenter and comedian.
Comedy career
Ballard began his comedy career out by playing Blitzen in a local amateur production of Rock n Roll Santa, way back in 1997. He was a three-time Class Clowns National Finalist and a Raw Comedy National Finalist by 2006. At the age of 18, Tom has assisted Charlie Pickering and has performed at Melbourne's Local Laughs on a regular basis. He performed in Upwey, Warburton, Healesville and Lilydale as part of the star-studded Young Blood Comedy Tour in 2007 and was a guest entertainer in the 2007 Melbourne Comedy Festival's Eskimo Jokes show.
He was one quarter of The Comedy Zone at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[1][2]
Radio career
Tom was a presenter for Warrnambool's 3WAY FM community radio station with Alex Dyson.[3] On the strength of his Raw Comedy performance, Ballard was given the chance to develop some demos with Australian youth radio station Triple J and, along with Alex, was given regular Mid-Dawn (1am to 6am) shifts.
In December 2008, Tom and Alex were the presenters for the weekday summer lunch slot (10am to 2pm) and in 2009 moved to the weekend breakfast slot.[4] On 23 November 2009, Triple J announced that Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast show.
Personal life
Thomas Colin Ballard was born on the 25th of November 1989, and grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. He attended Brauer College Warrnambool, graduating in 2007 where he was dux with an ENTER of 99.80,[5] and was consequently named as the dux of the South West Region.
He was also awarded the VCAA's VCE Achiever's Award for December 2007.[6] Some of reasons he was given this award were cited as winning VCAA's Plain English Speaking Award[7] as well his work within the school and local youth communities and activism on topics such as homophobia and cyber-bullying.[8]
Ballard had a 16 month-long relationship with fellow comedian Josh Thomas. The two separated in June 2010.
References
- ^ Comedy Festival Season 2008 - The Comedy Zone Retrieved December 25, 2008.
- ^ Melbourne: The Comedy Zone by Paul Sutton on April 3, 2008. Retrieved December 25, 2008.
- ^ Taylor, Belle (6 January 2010). "Changing of the guard at Triple J". The West Australian. p. 2. Retrieved 26 Apr 2010.
{{cite news}}:|section=ignored (help) - ^ Liptai, Tina. Comedy duo hit bigtime: National breakfast, Warrnabool Standard, December 11, 2008, accessed December 26, 2008.
- ^ http://www.brauer.vic.edu.au/vce_results.html retrieved December 23, 2008
- ^ accessed VCAA Bulletin 2007 December 26, 2008
- ^ Plain English Speaking Award Report 2007, accessed December 26, 2008.
- ^ VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET, No 55 accessed December 26, 2008.