Tom Ballard

This article is about the Australian comedian. For the Australian rules footballer, see Tom Bollard.
Tom Ballard

Born Thomas Colin Ballard
26 November 1989
Nationality Australian
Occupation Comedian, radio presenter

Thomas Colin "Tom" Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is an Australian radio presenter and comedian.

Early life

Ballard was born to parents Judy and Neil Ballard and grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. He 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 cyberbullying.[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

Ballard 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 Dyson, was given regular Mid-Dawn (1am to 6 am) shifts.

In December 2008, Ballard and Dyson 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 Ballard and Dyson would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast show.

In November 2013, Ballard resigned from Triple J after 7 years with the station to focus on his stand-up comedy.

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."[9] Josh subsequently dated Thomas Jaspers[10] although to avoid confusion with Ballard, Ward and himself nicknamed him 'Ralph'. Ballard is also a strong supporter for animal rights, owning several cats of his own and using his fame to raise awareness for the cause.[11] Ballard is vegetarian.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.brauer.vic.edu.au/vce_results.html retrieved 23 December 2008
  2. ↑ accessed VCAA Bulletin 2007 26 December 2008
  3. ↑ Plain English Speaking Award Report 2007, accessed 26 December 2008.
  4. ↑ VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET, No 55 accessed 26 December 2008.
  5. ↑ Comedy Festival Season 2008 – The Comedy Zone Retrieved 25 December 2008.
  6. ↑ Melbourne: The Comedy Zone by Paul Sutton on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 25 December 2008.
  7. ↑ Taylor, Belle (6 January 2010). "Changing of the guard at Triple J". The West Australian. p. 2. Retrieved 26 April 2010. |chapter= ignored (help)
  8. ↑ Liptai, Tina. Comedy duo hit bigtime: National breakfast, Warrnabool Standard, 11 December 2008, accessed 26 December 2008.
  9. ↑ "Tom Ballard - Hello! FYI, Josh and I aren't going out... - Facebook". Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "AFL Photos - Galleries - AFL Photo Galleries". Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Josh Thomas on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 22 March 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tom Ballard.