Creative Types With Virginia Trioli on ABC – Amid the carnival that is the Adelaide Fringe we meet Tom Gleeson: he’s presenting his new show Gear, but says you never stop working on a show, and that a show is never finished.
In his hometown of Romsey, outside of Melbourne, Tom goes through his archive and says he had a major early realisation about trying and failing in front of crowds: it was funnier when he said what he was really thinking, didn’t filter himself and committed to it. The acerbic Tom Gleeson was born.
His work process includes long rides on his bike, where he rolls through comedy routines in his head as he rides along the quiet backroads of his semi-rural community.
On set for The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, where Gleeson debuted I Hate You Change My Mind, which became Hard Chat, Pickering remembers that everyone who agreed to join the segment looked better for having a laugh at themselves.
Hard Quiz became a juggernaut but being nominated for the Gold Logie began his greatest joke of all: campaigning for a trophy he said he didn’t care about, but every other nominee did. It was a signal moment in Australian TV when he won: he says he did wonder that night if he had ruined his TV career.
But on stage in Adelaide, with a sell-out crowd, he’s never seemed like a bigger boss
Production credit: An ABC Production. Executive Producer, Jaya Balendra. Director, Stamatia Maroupas. ABC Head Arts, Music and Events, Kath Earle.
Creative Types With Virginia Trioli on ABC and ABC iview – Tuesday 7 May, 2024 at 9.00pm
You can listen to a TV Central podcast with Virginia Trioli HERE
TV Central ABC content HERE
