Tom Ballard (comedian)
Tom Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is a tall, blond, fast-talking, openly gay, Australian radio presenter and comedian.
Early life
Thomas Colin Ballard grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria and attended Brauer College Warrnambool, graduating in 2007 where he was dux with an ENTER of 99.80,[1] 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.[2] Among reasons he was given this award were cited as winning VCAA's Plain English Speaking Award[3] as well his work within the school and local youth communities and activism on topics such as homophobia and cyber-bullying.[4]
Comedy career
Ballard began his comedy career by playing Blitzen in a local amateur production of Rock n Roll Santa in 1997. He was a three-time Class Clowns National Finalist and a Raw Comedy National Finalist by 2006. He performed in Upwey, Warburton, Healesville and Lilydale as part of the 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.[5][6]
Radio career
Tom was a presenter for Warrnambool's 3WAY FM community radio station with Alex Dyson.[7] 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 6 am) shifts.
In December 2008, Tom and Alex were the presenters for the weekday summer lunch slot (10 am to 2 pm) and in 2009 moved to the weekend breakfast slot.[8] On 23 November 2009, Triple J announced that Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast show, after that JJJ Breakfast has decended into being the most shit boring radio show ever put to air, it just plain sux!!!!.
It is said that Tom loves hearing Alex Dyson's Flight Fiasco story every single day. [9]
Personal life
In November 2009, comedian and television personality Josh Thomas confirmed he was in a relationship with Ballard via his podcast. They later separated in June 2010 after 16 months of dating, with Ballard posting on his Facebook fanpage: "Josh and I aren't going out anymore. It's all pretty complicated, but basically I just decided that I have to follow my heart and get married to Mitch Hewer, Zac Efron, Daniel Radcliffe and Eamon Sullivan. We are still great friends though and it is all okay."[10] Josh is now dating Thomas Jaspers [11] although to avoid confusion with Ballard, Ward and himself have nicknamed him 'Ralph'.[12]
References
- ^ http://www.brauer.vic.edu.au/vce_results.html retrieved 23 December 2008
- ^ accessed VCAA Bulletin 2007 26 December 2008
- ^ Plain English Speaking Award Report 2007, accessed 26 December 2008.
- ^ VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET, No 55 accessed 26 December 2008.
- ^ Comedy Festival Season 2008 - The Comedy Zone Retrieved 25 December 2008.
- ^ Melbourne: The Comedy Zone by Paul Sutton on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 25 December 2008.
- ^ Taylor, Belle (6 January 2010). "Changing of the guard at Triple J". The West Australian. p. 2. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
{{cite news}}:|section=ignored (help) - ^ Liptai, Tina. Comedy duo hit bigtime: National breakfast, Warrnabool Standard, 11 December 2008, accessed 26 December 2008.
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/tomandalex/blog/s3300588.htm
- ^ Niet compatibele browser | Facebook
- ^ AFL Photos - Galleries - AFL Photo Galleries
- ^ http://twitter.com/joshthomas87/status/27725522565