Tom Hollander is in my top five actors of all time. A rare beast who can do comedy and drama with equal, effortless brilliance. He lands a line so dry you need a glass of water just to recover—then, in the next breath, breaks your heart with those devastatingly eloquent eyes. And now, thanks to The White Lotus , he has also proved himself outstanding at dying. A Napoleon of the screen—compact but commanding, wielding presence like an emperor wields an army—he strode through Season 2, a vision of...
Feb 13, 2025•3 min
One of the funnier moments from the Alan Jones era. Warning: It does contain the voice of Mark “Chopper” Read. And the voice and face of Alan Jones. PS: The studio audience was so polite! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisisthekicker.substack.com
Nov 18, 2024•2 min
Robert William Hoskins, actor, born 26 October 1942; died 29 April 2014. It didn’t matter that this guy—who left school at 15 to become a bouncer, porter, window cleaner, and fire-eater—went on to become ridiculously famous. He was always down-to-earth: "Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth." Hoskins could play serious and scary, then turn on a dime to reveal sweetness and a big heart. A chance audition led him to the thea...
Nov 14, 2024•1 min
This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian and TV host, Tom Ballard. You all know Tom from Triple J, multiple hosting and guesting engagements on the ABC and Channel 10 as well as the iconic Tonightly with Tom Ballard . We talk about that here. There’s also his stand up and his book, I Millennial . And now he’s back with a new Melbourne Comedy Festival Show, It Is I , which is at the Victoria Hotel from March 30 and ALSO Yes/No – A Comedy Lecture , which is also at the Victoria Hot...
Mar 26, 2023•18 min
Too much has happened since Dave O’Neil recorded this episode of Another 10 Questions back in the peak pandemic days of November, 2021. The point of Another 10 Questions was to invite guests back onto the pod as a catch up or check in. And since Dave was on the very first episode of this podcast back in 2015, there was a lot to talk about. Most listeners will be familiar with Dave’s work on Spicks and Specks , Agony , Randling , The Nugget, and more recently, great cameos in Utopia and Fisk . He...
Mar 23, 2023•37 min
This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian Mel Buttle. I’ve been a long-time fan and this is our first ever chat. I particularly love her Mum character, which she occasionally releases on social media. We talk about the genesis of that here. We also talk school, jobs, growing up in Queensland and the Great Australian Bake Off which Mel co-hosted for five years. Stay tuned for her handy baking tips. You can also check out Mel’s new Melbourne Comedy Festival Show Let Me Know Either W...
Mar 19, 2023•31 min
“I feel like I'm a very, very big energy in a world that wants you to be a little bit smaller.” - Nikki Britton. This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian Nikki Britton. Apart from her live work, you might have seen Nikki on Have You Being Paying Attention , The Project and How to Stay Married. She’s returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with her show, Getting Out in Front of It, from April 11. You can get tickets at the Festival website. We had some tech diffic...
Mar 12, 2023•18 min
This week’s guest on Out of the Question is writer, comedian, and musician, Sammy J. It’s a great chat. How could it not be? We talk about Sammy’s start in comedy, some of the formative shows he was involved in as a writer performer, the sitcom he created with Heath McIvor called Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane, and then his transition to political satire with Sammy J's Playground Politics . Now he’s taking a live version of his political satire featuring stand up, songs and storytelling ar...
Mar 05, 2023•28 min
This week, I’m extremely excited to have Osher Günsberg on the show. Most people know him from hosting the Bachelor and it’s associated spin offs I was more an Australian Idol guy who loved the on screen chemistry shared by Osher and James Mathison. But that’s just me showing my age. During our conversation, we talk about all that, as well as his radio days, as well as getting back on the horse when you’re down as well as the extreme heights he hit hosting TV shows in the US. This is a public ep...
Feb 26, 2023•28 min
This week’s very special episode of Out of the Question is a Wilfred reunion episode with my fellow Wilfred creator, Jason Gann. We talk about the origins of Wilfred and where Jason is in his life right now. I met him as an acting student at the University of Southern Queensland. After graduating, he performed for the Queensland Theatre Company and the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane before moving to Melbourne and appearing in The Wedge , Wilfred , and also the feature film Rats and Cats, whic...
Feb 19, 2023•25 min
My guest this week is satirist, humourist, author and stand up – Titus O’Reily. Titus used to be called Alex Twomey. He was a corporate guy who specialised in crisis and issues management. As we discover in this interview, Alex started writing a blog while still working in his office job and gave himself the pen name “Titus O’Reily”. The blog was hilarious and it turned out I wasn’t the only one to think so. He was soon asked to write books and perform live shows and more success followed. Now y...
Feb 12, 2023•36 min
This week’s guest is my long time pal and work colleague, Sarah Wilson. Sarah is a multi-New York Times and Amazon best-selling author, podcaster, international keynote speaker, philanthropist and climate change advisor. She founded the I Quit Sugar movement – a digital wellness program and 13 award-winning books selling into 52 countries. And in 2022 she sold the business and gave everything to charity. In what seems to be a lifetime ago, Sarah was the editor of Cosmopolitan Australia; host of ...
Feb 05, 2023•24 min
I’ve been lucky with the content offered by the guests on this podcast – but this guy has an unusually inspiring story. Working class boy, becomes a political operative at 19, works his way up to being an advisor in the Rudd and Gillard Governments before pivoting to cricket commentary and becoming one of the best-known cricket broadcasters in the world. His name is Adam Collins, and in 2018, he saw there was no Australian radio presence covering the test series between Australia and Pakistan in...
Jan 29, 2023•51 min
This week’s guest on Out of the Question is writer, comedian, and musician, Andrew Hansen. He’s the member of The Chaser who sings and sometimes gets into trouble for the lyrics he sings. I think he’s hilarious in the style of a shorter Cleese or a stronger jawed Tim Brooke-Taylor – while, at the same time, being completely his own thing. He’s also been a radio presenter on the ABC, Triple M and Nova. And he’s toured his live stage shows around the country many times. In fact, you can catch his ...
Jan 22, 2023•27 min
This week’s guest is the former Western Bulldogs great, turned AFL commentator, turned radio host, Luke Darcy. In 2002, Luke was awarded the AFL Players Association Most Valuable Player Award, the Australian Football Media Association Player of the Year Award, and the Herald Sun Player of the Year Award. He represented Australia in the International Rules Series against Ireland that same year and was captain of the Bulldogs in 2005/6. When he retired he proved he had a natural talent for broadca...
Jul 10, 2022•23 min
Welcome to the 100th episode of Out of the Question, the show formerly known has 10 Questions. It’s been a wild 100 episodes recorded over seven years – the most recent 50 coming a lot quicker than the first. I’m not going to mention individual episodes, but I want to thank all the guests who have come on and revealed their most personal stories and opinions. I’m so spoiled that when an interview subject doesn’t bear their soul, I’m left wondering why. So thank you to all the generous guests. Qu...
Jul 03, 2022•27 min
It’s been seven years since I last interviewed Ash Williams for this podcast. Back then, the former Hughesy and Kate co-host had recently returned from LA, where he’d made guest appearances on Anger Management, The Exes and You’re The Worst. He also sold photos of his feet, appeared in tickling videos and worked as a shirtless waiter at a gay bar. We’ll hear all about that in this interview. But in recent years, he’s been a morning television regular, fronted colour reports for the Australian Op...
Jun 26, 2022
It was a treat for a sports nuffy like me to interview the football and cricket commentator, Mark Howard. I think Mark, or Howie’s as he’s commonly referred to, is one of cricket’s strongest ball-by-ball commentators. He’s always prepared. He’s got insight. And he brings out the best in the former stars offering special comments. During our chat, I learned he started his career in television as a crew-guy on the Forumula One broadcast. He then took a job as a reporter for Ten Sports, before beco...
Jun 19, 2022•35 min
This week’s guest is one of the enduring stars of Australian comedy. He’s good-hearted, infinitely likeable, smart and funny. I speak, of course, of the great Peter Helliar. I’ll take it for granted that we all we Peter best for his on air partnership with Rove McManus as well as his work on Skithouse, Before The Game, co-hosting The Project and his super-star alter ego – the final pick in the 2004 AFL draft, Brian Strauchan. There are also his successful TV shows, It’s a Date and How to Stay Ma...
Jun 12, 2022
This week’s guest has been part of our lives for decades. The high school debating star studied law, science and maths at university before winning Raw Comedy and embarking on a stellar radio career – first on Triple J and then on 702. I speak of course of the guy who hates being called “a math’s genius”, Adam Spencer. Still, Adam’s pretty good at maths and has written five books on the subject, including the recently released Maths 101. Adam’s TV appearances include Good News Week and The Glass...
Jun 05, 2022
This week we’re talking to the playwright, author, and Guardian columnist, Van Badham. Over the course of our chat, we cover her humble beginnings to early steps as a playwright at the University of Wollongong to studying theatre in Britain and having multiple award-winning plays staged over there, to her residency at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and being appointed Literary Manager at Britain’s renowned Finborough Theatre. We also discuss Van returning to Australia,...
May 29, 2022
I’ve met this week’s guest many times over the years – generally at gigs or in the green rooms of TV studios, and I never waste the opportunity to tell her how great she was on the iconic late 1980s early 90s sketch show, The Big Gig, or the spoof hospital soap opera, Let The Blood Run Free. I speak of course of the legendary Jean Kittson. INnmore recent years, Jean‘s popped up as a regular on The Einstein Factor, The Glass House and 20 to One. But her main vocation has been writing. There have ...
May 22, 2022
It was quite an emotional day when I interviewed this week’s guest, the former rugby international turned best-selling author, Peter FitzSimons. Because it was the day after my father died. I’ve written about my Dad, Desmond Zwar, a lot on social media. He was the author of 20 non fiction books, including The Loneliest Man In the World about Rudolf Hess, In Search of Sir Keith Murdoch, This Wonderful World of Golf, where he went on the golf tour with Peter Thomson, and the runaway best seller, G...
May 15, 2022•34 min
This week’s guest is Andy Lee - one half of Australia’s most popular comedy duo ever. He and Hamish Blake started off doing TV and radio at university, before making their commercial radio debut on Fox FM doing the 10pm-to-midnight slot on Mondays. We discuss that in this episode as well as their network TV debut on Channel 7’s The Hamish and Andy Show. As of this moment, Hamish and Andy have enjoyed nearly two decades of unparalleled radio and television success with their drive show on Fox FM ...
May 08, 2022•36 min
This week’s guest is one of the elders of podcasting in Australia. Back in 2010, he and Wil Anderson started making the podcast TOFOP – as well a collaborating on other podcasts, including the enduring and iconic, Two Guys One Cup . He’s also a well-known actor, starring in Blue Heelers, McLeod’s Daughters and Home and Away. I speak of course of Charlie Clausen. This episode was recorded in the aftermath of the Northern Rivers floods in which Charlie was on the front line of the rescue effort wh...
May 01, 2022•24 min
This week’s guest on Out Of The Question is Masterchef judge, Andy Allen. Andy was an elite basketball player and full-time electrician before becoming a Masterchef contestant and then winner, in season 4. After that, he became a trainee chef at Three Blue Ducks restaurants, head chef at their Rosebery establishment, and then a co-owner of the group. In 2019, he returned to Masterchef as a judge. And that’s where he is today, while also working every spare moment he can get at the Three Blue Duc...
Apr 24, 2022•24 min
Our guest this week is the brilliantly laconic comedian Dan Connell. I first saw Dan perform at Dave O’Neil’s Fun House in around 2014 and was immediately struck by his super-relaxed delivery and use of old school lexicon. Dan grew up in the rugby league heartland of Bateman’s Bay on the New South Wales South Coast, which was hit by the terrifying Currowan fire in 2019 that ended up burning for 74 days and nearly took the house that Dan grew up in. When not worrying about his parents having to f...
Apr 17, 2022•22 min
The lawyer-turned-comedian and television creator, Nazeem Hussain. If you’re anywhere near TikTok you’ll see that Nazeem’s sketch shows Legally Brown, which first screened on SBS, and Orange is the New Brown (Channel 7), have gained a whole new, obsessively loyal audience. But Nazeem’s not thinking too much about creating any television right now. He’s just become a father for a second time and his stand-up show, Hussain That? is currently playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival b...
Apr 10, 2022•25 min
Pretty excited to have the British comedian Mark Watson on the podcast this week – not only do I find him hilarious, but I also like the way he explores the formats in which comedy can be presented. He’s won Perrier awards, Time Out Critics Choice awards and been nominated for Barry Awards at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He’s appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You, and Michael Mcintyre’s Comedy Roadshow. AND, he’s also written five novels. Mark is...
Apr 03, 2022•25 min
Pretty excited to be interviewing a duo this week. Possibly, Australia’s funniest duo. They are Melbourne Comedy Festival favourites, they’re winners of the Edinburgh Fringe Perrier Award, and they made two hilarious seasons of their sitcom on the ABC. Throughout this interview with Colin Lane and Frank Woodley we talk about how they started off as a trio called The Found Objects with a writer-performer called Scott Casley. They also talk about performing comedy when you’re grieving, as well as ...
Mar 27, 2022•38 min
