Annabel grew up on a farm, graduated from the University of Adelaide, became a journalist at the Adelaide Advertiser and moved on to The Age where she worked in the paper’s London bureau. Then, when she returned to Australia in the mid 2000s, she wrote books, won Walkley Awards and also appeared on quiz shows (Randling) and panel shows (Gruen). And from those beginnings, a stellar TV career emerged in which she wrote and starred in such shows as Kitchen Cabinet, where she would prepare a meal wi...
Mar 20, 2022•20 min
This week has been a hell of a week for anyone living in the flood effected Northern Rivers region of NSW, so I thought it was appropriate to talk to author, comedian, and now Green’s candidate for Richmond in northern NSW, Mandy Nolan. All week she’s been helping the rescue effort in the region, so I was lucky to get her on Zoom for a chat. She’s one of the funniest comedians in Australia. She’s definitely Australia’s funniest non-celebrity comedian. Anyone in the business knows that it’s fooli...
Mar 13, 2022•32 min
Our first guest under the new Out of the Question moniker is the screenwriter and satirist, Chris Taylor. Post university, Chris started off as a cadet journalist for ABC news in Melbourne before moving back to Sydney and writing full time for the Chaser newspaper. He soon became a fully-fledged member of the Chaser and was a distinctive voice in all the group’s iterations. Other works include being a presenter on Triple J, writing shows and songs with his Chaser-pal Andrew Hansen, creating the ...
Mar 06, 2022•35 min
The smart, talented and hilarious Chrissie Swan. She was an advertisting copywriter before going on Big Brother in 2003. After that came a stint on regional radio in Queensland, then Vega and Mix FM in Melbourne, and now Chrissie, Sam and Brownie on Nova. In between, there were long term TV stints on The Circle, Can of Worms and The Great Australian Spelling Bee for Channel 10. Now she’s back on the network tonight – Februaty 28 – hosting the Australian reboot of Would I Lie To You. In this inte...
Feb 27, 2022•28 min
I first came across the Adelaide-raised Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann when he teamed up with Wil Anderson for their national drive show Wil and Lehmo. I loved his work on Before the Game where he cracked football-wise alongside Dave Hughes, Peter Helliar, Andy Maher and Samantha Lane. Since then, he and Joe Stanley took Gold FM’s breakfast show to number one before being fired – he talks about that here – and he’s since moved on to hosting breakfast on SAFM. I like Lehmo’s work ethic and the fact that...
Feb 20, 2022•51 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Australian audiences know her best for her work as “Patricia Saunders” on Love Child, “April” on No Activity and the showstopping “Stevie” on The Other Guy. But since moving to the US, Harriet’s career has reached even greater heights – first she starred in The Inbetween, a supernatural drama for NBC, then came the b...
Feb 13, 2022•30 min
Welcome to our short 10 Questions spin off, The Top Three. I choose a topic and ask guests to list their three favourite things about it. On this episode, comedian Lawrence Mooney details his top three beverages. Get the full series here - https://www.patreon.com/10QuestionsWithAdamZwar Socials Twitter - Adam Zwar Facebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly Media. More about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/ See ...
Feb 08, 2022•4 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. This episode’s guest is one of my favourite comedians, Lawrence Mooney. I love Lawrence because he says the things I dare not think. He’s an actor, a writer, a stand up and of course a radio host. I’ve known him since we made the pilot for the Agony series back in 2010 and it was about 30 seconds into interviewing hi...
Feb 06, 2022•57 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. After starring on such Australian TV shows as Moody Christmas, Strange Calls and Offspring, Patrick Brammall co-created the Stan hit No Activity with Trent O’Donnell. They took it to the US where it played on CBS All Access for four seasons. Brammall, who also starred in the US remake, appeared alongside such luminar...
Jan 30, 2022•35 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Today we’re joined by former advertising copywriter turned social commentator turned novelist Jane Caro. \It’s impossible not to feel wiser after a conversation with Jane If you suffer anxiety or insecurity and want to turn your life around – then listen in. I first came across Jane on what used to be The Gruen Trans...
Jan 23, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Writer, director and producer, Trent O’Donnell, is one of Australia’s most prolific comedy creators – co-creating such shows as Review With Miles Barlow, Moody Christmas, No Activity and Squinters. He moved to the US in 2012 where he directed and executive produced New Girl. His other directing credits include Brookl...
Jan 16, 2022•39 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Those who only know today’s guest Ed Kavalee from television are getting just a fraction of his personality. His close friend, Josh Lawson, used to call him the unofficial mayor of Melbourne. If you needed to get into a popular club or restaurant – you’d talk to Ed. I’d go further than that, if you needed a kidney, y...
Jan 09, 2022•40 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. The first politician I ever interviewed – way back in 1993 – was the former leader of the Australian Democrats, Cheryl Kernot. And I’m delighted she could join us here. Cheryl was the Democrats’ Senator for Queensland from 1990 to 1997. She then left The Democrats to join the ALP, where she ran for and won the seat o...
Jan 02, 2022•36 min
I’ve known Dil, as he is often called, from around the comedy traps for quite a few years and watched him graduate from open mics to headlining, and from bit parts in TV shows to main roles. I last spoke to him in 2015 before I moved to LA and while I was gone he released two hour-long comedy specials, won a Logie and lost more than a third of his body weight. During this interview we talk about growing up in Sri Lanka, Melbourne University, being an account at KPMG and then moving into stand up...
Dec 26, 2021•50 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. More thrills and spills from my chat with Kate Langbroek. Socials Twitter - Adam Zwar Facebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly Media. More about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 19, 2021•35 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Our returning guest is my old friend Kate Langbroek, whose bold and hilarious banter is one of my favourite things about Australian broadcasting. And she’s a great writer too. She started out on Neighbours, then had a column in The City Weekly and then in News Corp’s Stellar Magazine. Now she’s written a book called ...
Dec 12, 2021•37 min
Adam's book Twelve Summers is out now. Twelve Summers is the story of those big memories and the big matches that accompanied them, told by one of the funniest writers in Australia. Legendary Australian batter and captain, Gregory Stephen Chappell. When I was growing up, I used to wear a t-shirt with his face emblazoned on it. I also had a Greg Chappell towel and a Greg Chappell hat. Chappell has just written the book called Greg Chappell Not Out, which takes-in his career post-cricket, includin...
Dec 05, 2021•59 min
This time we revisit one of our most popular guests, my friend, the comedian, broadcaster, architecture enthusiast and design aficionado, Tim Ross. Most of Australia knows Tim from his stage, radio and TV partnership with Merrick Watts. But more recently, he’s travelled the world performing live shows with a focus on architecture and design. I was lucky enough to see Tim’s longest running show - Man About the House - at Robin Boyd’s Walsh Street house in South Yarra, Melbourne, and it was one of...
Nov 28, 2021•34 min
Arguably Australia’s most popular comedian over the past 25 years. He’s played to packed houses all over the country and hosted radio shows on Nova, KIIS and now on 2Day FM. TV shows he’s either hosted or been a regular on include Hughesy We Have A Problem, The Project, Before The Game and of course ABC’s, The Glass House. During our chat, he talks about living in the moment, the occasional regret of not giving America a proper shot, sobriety and I also pick out some of my favourite moments from...
Nov 21, 2021•28 min
I’ve known Meshel Laurie for more than 30 years. She was easily the funniest and most talented person in the first year of her acting course at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba. I distinctly remember her doing a monologue for her end of year assessment and having the whole auditorium in hysterics but for some reason the lecturers didn’t let her graduate into second year acting. So she was shunted into the drama course where she learned to be a drama teacher. It was one of those...
Nov 14, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Matt is one of the most recognisable faces in Australia due to his role as a judge on Masterchef. But his story started in England, going to boarding school, then the University of Kent before following his father into journalism. Matt wrote about television in Britain before the company he worked for sent him out to Australia to write about TV here. He then segued into writing about food for The Age, News Corp and the magazine, Inside Melbourne. In this interview, Matt tells us about the random...
Nov 07, 2021•46 min
Welcome to a special episode of 10 Questions – called “Another 10 Questions” - which gives me a chance to have guests return to the podcast. On the first episode is Dave O’Neil, who was the first guest on the show back in 2015 – 64 episodes ago. Dave O’Neil’s a veteran comic, radio host, screenwriter and definitely the person who gets name-checked the most on this podcast. You’ll know him from everything – and by “everything” I mean Spicks and Specks, Agony, Randling, The Nuggett and more recent...
Oct 31, 2021•37 min
Dave grew up in Geelong, took his first steps into stand-up comedy in his early 20s, and his gift of the gab was quickly recognised by Nova and then Fox FM – where he hosted various shows including the top rating Fifi, Dave and Fev. On television, he hosted This Week Live and appeared on such shows as Talkin’ About My Generation and Hughesy We Have a Problem. Personally, I was always grateful to be able to cut to yet another hilarious piece of Dave Thornton wisdom on the Agony series. These days...
Oct 24, 2021•41 min
Welcome to the 63rd episode of Ten Questions where Adam talks to Shaun Grant - the multi-AACTA Award winning screenwriter of Nitram. Shaun’s debut film, Snowtown, about the infamous Snowtown murders in South Australia in the 1990s – won multiple awards and screened at Critics’ Week at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. And that’s when Shaun’s career took off – writing the feature films Jasper Jones, Berlin Syndrome, Penguin Bloom, The True Story of the Kelly Gang and Nitram. He also wrote for David ...
Oct 17, 2021•39 min
This week’s guest is the actress Georgina Haig. Selected credits from Georgina’s fabulous career include the first season of Underbelly, Queen Elsa in Once Upon a Time, The Crossing and Snowpiercer. And now she’s back in Australia playing Rachel Rafter in Packed to the Rafters for Amazon Prime. In our chat we get into the weeds of what it’s like to be a working actor and to have a father who wrote the Australian classic BMX Bandits. I’ve known Georgina, her husband, Josh, and daughter, Greta for...
Oct 10, 2021•44 min
Four-time Logie Award winning actor, singer, and dancer, Hugh Sheridan. Hugh grew up in Adelaide with six brothers and sisters, studied ballet with the Australian Ballet, sang with the State Opera of South of Australia and went to acting school at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Hugh’s major break was playing Ben Rafter on the Channel Seven hit, Packed to the Rafters. What followed was the limited series INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, House Husbands and Five Bedrooms. Right now Hugh’s in Bri...
Oct 03, 2021•26 min
Dr Chris graduated from the University of Sydney in 2001 with First Class Honours in vet science. After practicing in Sydney’s North Shore as well as remote communities in the Northern Territory, a chance meeting in a pub with a media manager helped him land a presenting role on Harry’s Practice in 2003. After that, he went on to win a Logie for Most Popular New Talent and write the best-selling book, The Family Guide to Pets. Then, in 2008, came the all-conquering reality show Bondi Vet, which ...
Sep 26, 2021•44 min
Back in 2018, Christian was the most popular breakfast host in the UK – with three million people listening to his show each morning. Then, a combination of panic attacks and wanderlust made him decide to leave his top rating show, uproot his family and move to Australia to become the breakfast host on Melbourne’s Gold FM. In his book, No One Listens to Your Dad’s Show, he charts his experiences with mental health, his decision to move to Australia and then the battle to take his show to number ...
Sep 19, 2021•55 min
We talk about her broadcasting beginnings from newsreading on Channel 10 to co-hosting The Today Show opposite Karl Stefanovic, the controversy surrounding her departure from The Today Show, her battle with post-natal depression and her mother’s battle with bi-polar disorder. Jess and her mother, Penelope, would go on to write the book, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times, which charted her mother’s struggle . Socials Twitter - Adam Zwar Facebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is prod...
Sep 12, 2021•34 min
This episode is the Denise Scott episode. It’s such an honour to have her on the show. Yes, she’s hilarious and an icon, but she’s also one of the most generous and supportive performers in our industry. She started off in a clown troupe, gained national recognition on The Big Gig and Tonight Live With Steve Vizard, put in several Most Valuable Player performances in the Agony series before writing a couple of best-selling books and touring the nation with her comedy bestie, Judith Lucy. In this...
Sep 05, 2021•48 min
