Tom Ballard is young, gay and opinionated. How does this make him different from any other drunk bigmouth at The Beat on Saturday night you might ask?

Well the answer is that he is genuinely funny. Really funny. He’s starred at pretty well every major comedy festival from Montreal to Edinburgh and is a regular on Aussie TV, appearing on Good News Week, Spicks’n’Specks, Adam Hills’ In Gordon Street Tonight, Can of Worms, The Circle, AD/BC, Triple Jtv, ABC’s The Drum and The Project (just to name a few).

As Tom is preparing to bring his act to the Sunshine State as a part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival, QNews sent out our roving reporter Eliot Rifkin to chat with Tom about all things funny.

QNews: Hey Tom, I’ve been watching a bit of your material and reading about you on your website and it seems that you’re quite an opinionated young man. I was hoping that maybe you could tell us about just what is your world view.
Tom: Um gosh good question. I am probably a left leaning libertarian smart arse. That’s probably the best I can do. I am probably a pretty left wing thinker, I am an atheist, I am gay, I am a vegetarian, and I care about the environment. Are they enough things to annoy people?

I’m sure with such strong opinions you get some interesting responses. What was your weirdest fan mail?
Well I don’t get a lot of fan mail, though I do get a lot of tweets. Oh, the weirdest thing is something this guy posted of me on Youtube - I want to fuck Tom Ballard which was a song he had written and performed and in which he described how he wanted to have sex with me and I really freaked out. He wasn’t even good looking. That’s probably the weirdest one.

You’ve said that you pretend to get angry so what makes you happy?
Well generally I am pretty happy as I have had a pretty lucky life and good friends.

You mention on your website that you did a fundraiser for ACON how did that come about?
Oh it’s good, it was a friend that was performing there so that’s how I became involved. It was a fundraiser where they did a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show it’s on the 30th anniversary opening. Yeah I am very happy to do any charity gigs that are always relevant to me as I am in the gay community and ACON do a really good job so it’s a very fun gig and it’s very easy. It was a great night I think they raised a lot of money.

What’s the funniest thing that happened to you on stage?
Well recently in Adelaide I finished a show on my birthday and I really needed to go to the toilet so I ran off stage to go to the toilet. Unfortunately my friend who was a comedian performing at the same time had arranged this birthday for me and so he meant to stop me before I ran off stage so the crowd could sing happy birthday to me but I just ran off. He had to talk for five minutes and when I came back it was really awkward.

What’s your favourite topic or where do you get most inspiration for your act?
Well this show is about world events really. A show about politics and trying to do stuff to affect change or whatever or just have an opinion. It was about looking at events and things that made me angry and a whole bunch of gay rights stuff, gay marriage and a bunch of commentators talking about gay rights so its kinda things that connected with me or that I found interesting. If it’s not interesting to me I try not to write about it.

How long does it take for you to put together a routine, do you just have the bones of one and add to it or change little bits?
Well with this show there was a deadline so you kind of have to book in a festival and then you have to write the show. With a festival last year I had a writing weekend where I wrote everything out and then did a couple of trial shows in Sydney before the event. You only have a short time frame to turn around the show and get it ready. There are lots of ways though - I might gig all year and then take the best stuff from those gigs.

How do you find your act being received by lots of different venues in different cities?
Australia is pretty easy to travel with the same act. Only little things change but sometimes there are some things I have to explain to different people but the audience pick it up quickly as everyone has friends or family who lives in another state so they normally understand.

So with all your travel and having to put a routine together, how do you find time to date or meet someone?
I do not know! I have a pretty busy life so the people I tend to meet have pretty busy lives as well so you kind of meet them through others that work in media as well in comedy and that kind of thing.

Are you dating seeing someone now?
No I’m single. I am free as a bird.

What secret hobbies do you have or favourite pets growing up and that type of stuff or your favourite show as a kid?
Oh as a kid I loved a lot of musical theatre and I used to love listening to musical soundtracks and watching musical movies. It was a big part of my life. I stand by that they are cool and fun.

Did you have any hobbies?
I played the piano but I was not very good at it though. I was one of those kids that kept changing to Tae Kwan Do or hockey very briefly then I went and tried dancing. I was always trying out lots of different things, realising that I was bad at it and then going back to watching TV.

So where did you mostly grow up?
In Victoria in a place called Warrnambool on the south west coast about three hours from Melbourne. Its kind of about 30,000 people but it’s kind of a small town kind of place.

What’s your favourite idea for a date?
Oh I like going to the movies or to see a play and then going to eat after that and talk about the movie or play.

And what kind of movies do you like?
All kind of movies. I just saw The Descendants and it was great. I saw that on the weekend and thought it was really funny. George Clooney is really great.
Back to your show coming up as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival; tell us a little more.
I think the show will be good. It’s kinda like a political show without being preachy or annoying so that’s kind of the goal. It will be kind of a little bit different. It’s kind of personal but it’s my genuine opinion about bigger things so it’s something for all.

When is it?
It starts on 6 March, Tuesday to Sunday at The Powerhouse. I love coming to Queensland and I think the Brisbane Comedy Festival is probably the best comedy festival in the country because of its curators and the Powerhouse is such a beautiful place to perform. I have been there the past two years and its great.

Finally, is there anything you would like to say to Brisbane Gay Land before we say goodbye?
Hey poofters come and see my show please and congratulations on getting civil unions through your Parliament last year. That was pretty awesome!

You can catch Tom Ballard performing at the Brisbane Powerhouse Tuesday 6 March – Sunday 11 March. For tickets and information about other act performing as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival, visit www.briscomfest.com