NEWS!

22nd May, 2026

Hello, and a very happy May 22nd to you, wherever you may be. I have a momentous announcement to share with you today!

You know how I’ve been telling you about a concept album I’ve been working on (of parody songs in the different styles of various artists)? Well, the eight songs for the album are now finished! Or as “finished” as I’ve decided they’re going to be.

Please allow me to explain. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. So am I.
Let’s begin.

As you may remember, for the last few months, I’ve been exploring writing comedy parody songs. I’ve put LOADS of thought and work into it, and I’m now pretty happy with the way my eight initial efforts have turned out.

BUT I’ve been having an ongoing struggle with the ethics of using AI to help me create the music. You see, I believe that AI music generation will never replace real human composers and songwriters. But I also believe that when used judiciously, AI can be a very useful tool. And this is how I’ve employed AI in this project – purely as a tool, to illustrate what my lyrics might sound like when set to music. This is obviously an ethical debate that won’t be going away any time soon… And yet, I think that (for now, at least) I am comfortable to use AI song writing tools to assist me in illustrating the lyrics I’ve written.

The upshot of all this is that rather than using my comedy lyrics to create an album for commercial release (as I’d originally intended), I’ve now decided to pivot, and turn this project into something different…

Namely, an advertisement for my skills as a comedy lyricist.

https://www.TheStephenHall.com/comedy-lyricist/

So now, the eight songs whose lyrics I’ve written in the styles of these fine folks…

… are all featured on the website STEPHEN HALL: COMEDY LYRICIST AT YOUR SERVICE
(https://www.TheStephenHall.com/comedy-lyricist/) as a showcase of my versatility – and my comedy chops – when it comes to writing comedy songs.

There, you’ll find all the lyrics (and all the illustrative backing music) to the songs I’ve written in the styles of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Madness, ABC, Morrissey, Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias and Bob Dylan.

Please pop over and have a read (and a listen), if you’re so inclined – I’d love to know what you think!

The next thing I intend to tackle in this area is to have a go at writing some musical theatre songs, showcasing them on that page too.

So watch that space! (And listen to that space as well…)

Until next time!

6th March, 2026

Just a quick update today, on a new development that I’m really rather excited about!

One of the things I’ve been working away on this year is a return to one of my first loves – Radio. (Some 33 years after I did four years on 3RRR…)

As some of you may know, while I’ve been popping up once a month on David Astle’s Evenings program on ABC Melbourne, I’ve also been pursuing other radio opportunities, and knocking on various (soundproofed?) doors.

BUT IN THE MEANTIME…

I’m very happy to report that I’ve been offered the regular Wednesday Breakfast (7:00 AM – 9:00 AM) on our local volunteer community radio station Southern FM. It’s 88.3 on your FM dial, but in case you can’t pick it up where you are, you can also listen online here:

https://www.southernfm.com.au/

by clicking on the “LISTEN LIVE” player thingy on the right hand side. Starting next week (March 11th), I’ll be on every Wednesday, from 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM, with the extremely imaginatively titled Wednesday Breakfast with Stephen Hall. I’ve been training in the Southern FM studio, learning how to use the panel, and working up a few different segments for the show. And I’m fairly sure you know what type of music you can expect me to play… 😉

So, if you’re in a position to listen next Wednesday between 7:00 and 9:00 AM, join me, won’t you? It’s going to be fun!

Oh, and if you’d like to email or text the show when it’s on, please do – I’d love to hear from you. The email is studio@southernfm.com.au and the text line is 0404 000 736.

I’ll talk to you next Wednesday morning!

15th October, 2025

Why, hello!

I hope you’ve been well since the last update here (which I now see was over a year ago – Yikes! Not really all that much of a “NEWS” page, is it?), and that life has been treating you as kindly as possible. It’s taken me so long to do this update for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, because there’s not been all that much to report, workwise, since the end of the Comedy Festival. Apart from three little cameos that Shaun wrote into the end of Episode 4, Episode 5 and Episode 6 of his latest series of Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction…

… and a couple of appearances with David Astle on ABC Melbourne radio on Tuesday July 1st and Tuesday August 26th (the next one will be on Tuesday November 11th), it’s been pretty quiet around here.

And the second reason I haven’t been in touch for a while is because the way that the Comedy Festival season of my new show For The Term Of His Natural Lies wound up was, in a word…

… Disappointing. I put so much of myself –  of my creativity, of my hard work, of my heart and my soul – into this project that I really fell in love with it. I was enormously proud of the film; I was convinced it was unique, ingenious, and very entertaining too. But none of that translated to good box office. In fact, it played to less than 25% capacity throughout the season. On top of that, there were various issues with the venue, some truly devastating technical problems and frank feedback from industry colleagues halfway through the season that (while fair, accurate and ultimately valuable) came at a time when my confidence had already taken quite a battering… I spent a significant amount of money – and hundreds of hours of work – on a show that was nowhere near as well-received as I hoped (or rather, as I naively assumed) it would be. This year’s was my seventh Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and it will certainly be my last. BUT For The Term Of His Natural Lies is not necessarily dead and gone forever. In fact, I’ve worked out a way to rejig it to make it more of a film / live show hybrid, which I think is one of the key things that was missing… But the resurrection of that show can definitely wait until 2026, when I’ve got enough of my mojo back to face the next mountain of work that a reboot will entail. I was always clear that I was doing the show in the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival for three reasons. And each of those reasons did eventually pay off, but the whole thing did come at an enormous cost. “But what were those three reasons, Stephen?” I pretend to hear you ask. Well, I’ll tell you… The first reason I registered the show in the 2025 MICF was to give me a deadline to finish it. Having an Opening Night to work towards gave me a very concrete, non-negotiable time to get it done by. And as it turned out, I needed almost every hour leading up to it, as the amount of technical work in putting this thing together was FAR greater than I anticipated. And when you take into account that I was also learning the finer points of editing, dubbing and sound design as I went (even continuing to make small tweaks during the season), in addition to doing the many other jobs involved in producing a show… I vastly underestimated the workload. The second reason I registered was to use the show’s MICF season festival as a testing ground, to see if this concept actually worked. During each of the 14 performances, I analysed what audiences liked, what they didn’t, and made notes on how I could improve it. I recorded a lot of the performances, listening to reactions, and making detailed notes of which gags worked and which didn’t. Audience members and industry colleagues also gave me honest feedback which was really valuable… although at the time (mid-season, when things weren’t going as well as I’d hoped and I was desperately trying to maintain an upbeat attitude), it did bruise my ego a little. And the third reason I put the show in the festival was to garner some credibility for it – to get a review (or two or three), which would legitimise the show and give it some social proof and authority for any potential future seasons. And towards the end of the run, this did actually happen; I got a very nice review on artshub.com.au which you can read here… quotes from which will look good on any future posters, and in any future press releases.

And HERE’s the little video I hurriedly made in a last-ditch attempt to capitalise on that review!

… So that ticked the third of the three boxes. All in all, I am really glad I did the show, and I’m still very proud of the achievement. In its current form, it’s a great foundation for a rejigged reboot season in 2026… but as I say, it came at quite a cost. We’ll see what next year holds. Once I did eventually get my mojo back after all that, I dived headlong back into the other passion project I mentioned in my last email; writing a bunch of parody comedy songs (with an eye to putting together an entire album of parody comedy songs, in the vein of the HeeBeeGeeBees)…

I’m having a lot of fun working on this. I’m learning loads about writing lyrics, about song structures – choruses, verses and bridges – and about how to deliver gags effectively in those formats. It’s an extremely specific – and slightly unfamiliar –  form of comedy writing, and I’m absolutely relishing it.
I’ve now written the lyrics for four of the songs on the album and I’m pretty pleased with how they’re coming together. I haven’t recorded the vocals yet (which I’ll be doing in the style of various different bands and artists); the first step is to make sure that lyrically and structurally (and comedically) each song has a beginning, middle and end, and hangs together well. I’m spending quite a lot of time on this initial writing stage and so far, that investment seems to be paying off. 

I’m hoping to have most of the songs ready to go at the start of December… so watch this space! 

I’m also hard at work on the fourth draft of my play A Madness Most Discreet…

I have a ton of notes from the third draft to incorporate into it and doing so will make the project better and better and slicker and funnier… Which is always a good thing!

Oh, and finally, just before I leave you… Have I mentioned my ongoing (hobby) blog here lately?

HowToWinGameShows.com

Well, there’s usually something going on over there, and at the moment, I’ve just finished up a really interesting interview with Matthew Parkinson, who’s currently best known as the Chaser ‘Goliath’ on The Chase: Australia.
So, if you’re interested in game shows and the people involved in them – both behind and in front of the camera – why not pop on over and have a peruse? There’s more than 12 years’ worth of content over there, you know!

But for now, until next time… All the very best to you and yours!

Cheers,
Stephen.

9th October, 2024

I hope the first week of October treated you kindly. I just wanted to give you a little update on where things are at, after my last (I fear, somewhat burnt-out!) update.

After the tour of Letters From My Heroes, I took a little time to myself re-calibrate, and went to Bright in regional Victoria for a few days, which is absolutely delightful. While I was there, I had time to assess where I’m at with personal projects and what would be the best thing to focus my energies on next.

After MUCH consideration, I’ve now decided to pause writing my second novel; the sequel to Symphony Under Siege, which I began earlier this year. In hindsight, I think I might have started on it when the story was still a little under-cooked. I should have done a bit more planning, laid a bit more groundwork for the novel before diving in and starting to write its first draft.

Also, after recently watching various shows on the streaming services, I’ve started to notice a disturbing trend… a lot of seasons don’t have proper endings. Time and time again, I encountered shows that cheat the audience by having incomplete story arcs, leaving us all hanging…

The second PPP (Personal Passion Project) that I’m really excited about is a comedy redubbed movie project, much in the style of Woody Allen‘s What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, or the D-Generation’s Bargearse and The Olden Days. I plan to track down a load of footage from old movies, cut it all together and write a comedy story utilising the existing footage, and record replacement voices. At the moment, I’m sourcing all the footage and getting legal clearance (to be 100% sure that I can do whatever I want with it). The dream is to (ideally) end up with a 45 – 50 minute finished product that I can enter into next year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

As I scan through the various films taking copious notes, I’m also writing little scenes and editing and dubbing very rough demo versions of them on my laptop. Here are two little sneak previews:

https://youtu.be/NpJHvE46FwE?si=RPmA2zb8p6bOau-x 

https://youtu.be/DRrevDTO3FU?si=44zNmxE2Xu4i9WdT

Both the album and the redubbed movie project are things that I can do by myself, and that’s quite deliberate. After the tour, I’m keen to have a go at something which is just reliant on me; something I can do in the comfort of my home (initially, anyway, before I bring other people in).

I’m really excited about both of these new projects, and I’ll keep you posted on developments.

In other news, my play A Madness Most Discreet is still doing the rounds. My agents and I are still knocking on the doors of various producers and investors, trying to put a team together. Getting the play from the page to the stage was always going to be a marathon rather than a sprint, and I still really believe in it, so for the time being we’ll keep plugging away..

So there we are, that’s the Spring update. I hope you’re enjoying the season. Until next time… on I plug!

Cheers,
Stephen.

2nd August, 2024

Well, we did it! The 2024 regional Victoria tour of Letters From My Heroes… if they’d actually bothered to write back is now well and truly complete. 11 nights away from home, 7 performances in 7 different towns, 2 workshops delivered, an indeterminate number of country bakery meat pies (and litres of iced coffee flavoured milk) consumed… and over 3,038 km driven.

The tour was certainly eventful, it required a LOT of work behind the scenes, and had its fair share of – shall we say – hiccups… But all the way through, we could always rely on a warm greeting from the regional communities we visited. They always welcomed us with very open arms, and their hospitality was second to none. On a couple of occasions, they even invited us back to their place for a home-cooked meal! (Thank you, Andrew, thank you Helen!)

Thank you, too, to the local organisers and champions; Janet in Beechworth, Nerida in Wilby, Virginia in Portland, Andrew in Murtoa, Anita in Edi Upper and Olga in Corryong. Your good cheer and tireless enthusiasm was, and is, very much appreciated.

This tour wasn’t just a geographical journey – it was a metaphorical one too, and among other things, I certainly learned a lot about:

• Regional communities,
• Working with a huge variety of people,
• Touring in the arts, and
• What it takes to bump in, tech, and bump out a one-man show.

Speaking of which, I really must thank my two touring stage managers / tech operators, Megan and Micah, who were both very professional; always cool, calm and collected… and good company on those long stretches of driving, too!

Overall, I really relished these seven opportunities to present the show to new audiences, and they responded well each time, reaffirming my faith in the show. Even on the occasions when the response felt a bit muted to begin with, by the end, the show would always win the audience over and get them on board.

And although that was very encouraging as a writer/performer, right now I’m not quite sure what the next step for Letters From My Heroes will be. I’d absolutely love to perform this show again. I’m very fond of it, I really believe in it, and I’d like to bring it to as wide an audience as possible, but preferably with someone else producing it (someone other than me)! But these are issues I’ll address and questions I’ll answer a little further down the track. Right now, it’s time to resettle, regroup, and recharge the batteries. So for news on the next season – or seasons? – of Letters From My Heroes, watch this space.

But for now… I sleep. G’night everybody!
Stephen.

10th June, 2024

Hello, and Happy Monday to you! I’m writing to you in a state of pre-tour excitement today, because on Thursday – thanks to the generous support and assistance of Regional Arts Victoria and Creative Victoria – I’ll be taking off on my regional tour of my one-man show LETTERS FROM MY HEROES … if they’d actually bothered to write back!

Preparations have been all-consuming, and I’ve now created an official page for the tour (https://www.thestephenhall.com/letters-from-my-heroes/the-letters-from-my-heroes-2024-tour-of-regional-victoria/) right here on my website. Tickets have gone on sale at six of the eight venues, and I’ve been doing a bit of publicity too, chatting about it on regional breakfast radio, on the ABC and on South Coast FM, on my friend Bill’s morning show It’s Already Wednesday. We’re just down to last-minute preparations now before we (me and my Touring Production Stage Manager) jump in to the van and head off! Can not WAIT to get started. 

In other news, I’m still writing the first draft of the sequel to my novel Symphony Under Siege, but it hasn’t exactly been my highest priority of late. When I last wrote to you, I’d written one quarter of the first draft. I’ve now written 13 of the 40 chapters, so recent progress has been a little slow, I’m afraid. But I still have faith that after the tour, I’ll be able to throw myself back into the writing with renewed vigour and purpose. It’s still my goal to get the first draft of all 40 chapters done by October 4th.

I thiiink I can still achieve that… 

From the Drama Desk… I’ve had encouraging feedback from one director and one theatre owner about my comedy whodunnit play A Madness Most Discreet. It’s now with a couple of other actors and a producer… but I confess I haven’t been putting much time into chasing this, either. Again, the majority of my energy is currently being focussed on the tour.
But after the tour, I’ll start plugging away again on AMMD, making calls, writing emails, having meetings and hassling people and pushing this barrow. All good. After all, I’ve always said I’m playing the long game with this project.

And finally, from the Podcastery department… Dan Swain runs an interesting podcast (with Harman Chauhan) called The Game of Life. It’s an extended interview show, and they’ve had all sorts of interesting, talented, brilliant and funny guests on, to discuss their fascinating careers and lives.

Now they’ve had me on as well. 

I’m in Episode 79.  

And I think that’ll just about do it for this update. Now I’d better get back to those last minute preparations before we hit the road! Until next time… all the very best to you and yours!
Stephen

22nd March, 2024.

Why, hello! How are you? (A rhetorical question, obviously, but it seemed like a polite and chatty way to begin.) Gosh, it seems like only yesterday when I last checked in with you! Although it was, in fact, 18 days ago. I hope all’s well with you, and there are three things I want to let you know about today.

Firstly, I’m going to be a contestant on Next Tuesday’s (26/03) episode of Mastermind Australia, which screens on SBS at 6:00 PM!!! And, a couple of hours after that, it’ll be up on SBS on Demand.

I was invited onto the show back in November, and after a bit of deliberation, I thought it would be a fun thing to ‘come out of game show retirement’ for. We recorded the episode at the start of February.

SO, What was my Mastermind Special Subject? How did I go? Did I WIN?

… For the answers to all these questions (and some about Herbert “Doc” Evatt and the Collingwood Football Club from 1927 – 1930) watch Australian Mastermind at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, on SBS (and shortly thereafter on SBS On Demand).

I also decided to keep a diary of the whole experience, and post it on my blog HowToWinGameShows.com. Oh, have I told you about HowToWinGameShows.com? It’s my hobby – a blog that I’ve been running since 2013 – and it’ll soon be featuring a series of diary posts about my Mastermind Australia experience.

Secondly, I think I’m ready to announce that I’m now writing the sequel to my 2020 swashbuckling science fiction novel Symphony Under Siege! For a couple of years now, I’ve been dreaming up more adventures for Diana, Salazar and all the other (surviving) characters…  and late last year I settled on a story that leads directly on from the events of the first novel, while plunging them into a new series of challenges, battles, thrills and spills and daring escapes! And gags. Lots of gags.

As far as practicalities go, I’m following the writing schedule I set up for myself last time – one chapter each week. Back in 2020, breaking the whole novel into these bite-sized chunks and releasing them online week-by-week worked, and I’m hoping that a similar self-imposed workload will work just as well this time around. Of course, last time, I chronicled the whole process online, as an additional way of keeping myself accountable… but this time around, I’m keeping the work-in-progress to myself.

I spent the last couple of months last year planning the whole thing out, so the process now is just putting meat on the bones of that skeleton. At this stage, I’m a quarter of the way through the first draft. I’m slightly behind schedule, but I’m confident I can catch up if I knuckle down and stop paying quite so many visits to Procrastination Station…

(Although YouTube is pretty great, isn’t it?)

And finally, I wanted to let you know that this May, I will once again be taking part in the annual Sleep At The ‘G, for Melbourne City Mission. This outdoor sleepover – on the concrete concourses of the Melbourne Cricket Ground  – is a fantastic event that raises funds to combat youth homelessness. I’ve participated over the last few years with my good friends Tim & Chris, and we’ll grabbing our sleeping bags and beanies, hunkering down and doing it all again on Thursday May 16th.

If there’s any chance you’re able to sponsor me, you can do so by clicking HERE… or on the images above and below.

If you’re able to help out, I’d really, really appreciate it, and it’s for an incredibly good cause. Thank you so much! And that’s it for this update. Now I’d better get to writing that Symphony sequel – those swashes aren’t going to buckle themselves! Until next time… AHOY! Stephen

4th March, 2024.

Hello, and Happy New Year to you! (Yes, yes, I know it’s March, thank you…. I told you these would be occasional, didn’t I?) I hope the first couple of months of this year have flown by for you in a very cheery and engaging fashion! There are just a couple of things I wanted to let you know about today. Firstly, you may remember that ages ago, I mentioned that back in July I was involved (writing and performing) in a live event called The Roast of John Cleese. The night’s proceedings were recorded, to be made into a TV special for the Seven Network…

Well, all these months later, we now finally have an airdate for that special! It’ll be on the telly on Tuesday 12th March at 7:30 PM, on Channel 7 and 7plus! (And available to watch on 7plus after that). Here’s the promo: https://youtu.be/xERb4lh1l-c

I can’t wait to see how it turned out. (I mean, obviously I was there and I know what’s in it, but I’m very keen to see what made the edit and what didn’t.) I really, REALLY hope they left this bit in…

The second thing I wanted to let you know today is that for the next five days, my eBook How To Win Game Shows is 50% OFF, over at Smashwords.com! This means you can now grab it for just US $1.99 (which, I believe, is roughly AU $3.06)

So, if you happen to be an eBook reader, and you reckon this might of interest to you, and you’ve got a spare three dollars and six cents kicking around… Well, there you go! (But only until March 9th, as I say).

And that’s it for this little update. I’ll probably be checking in with you again quite soon. There’s a little TV thingy coming up which I haven’t been allowed to tell you about, up to this point…
But that embargo will be lifted very soon, and all of the beans will be duly spilled.

Until then, then!

Stephen.

Some beans being spilled.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The beans I will be spilling are not in any way related to the particular beans depicted above, or the specific spilling thereof. 

11th December, 2023.

Hello and welcome to my final occasional update for 2023.

The last one of these was back at the start of August, and a few things have happened since then. So, where to begin? Well, apart from auditioning for (and not getting*)…

• A role in a zombie movie starring Daisy Ridley,
• The role of the protagonist’s brother in a biopic,
• A role in an action movie starring Liam Neeson,
• A role in a horror movie where I would have played an American wrestling coach who survives a plane crash, only to get eaten by a shark,
• A superannuation commercial,
• A real estate commercial,
• An insurance commercial,
• The role in NCIS Sydney that went to William McInnes,
• and the voice of an animated bee,

… I’ve been pretty busy.

I don’t think I’ve told you this, but my one-man Comedy Festival show from earlier this year Letters From My Heroes… if they’d actually bothered to write back has qualified for support from Regional Arts Victoria, which means that I’ll be touring the show throughout regional Victoria in 2024! I’m excited about this – I’ve never toured a one-man show before and I look forward to taking it on the road for a series of performances at smaller venues all over this great state of ours. Dates and venues are to be advised, but I’m very much looking forward to this brand-new challenge!
Apart from that, I’ve been doing a few podcasts: another episode of Confessions with Sam Petersen & Dave Warneke, an episode of Dave’s own podcast Book Cheat (again with Sam Petersen), And I was absolutely honoured to be part of the live recording of the final episode of Damian Callinan’s fantastic Bodgy Creek Community Podcast…

And speaking of podcasts, have I mentioned that my friend Bill Ten Eyck and I have an occasional podcast called The Funny Thing Is… ?

Well, we do.
Each episode, Bill brings two funny things to the table, and so do I, the idea being that we may be able to introduce each other – and of course, the dear listener – to something funny, which they may not have been aware of before. There are four episodes up there so far. So please consider having a listen, if you think it sounds like something that may tickle your fancy.

The Funny Thing Is… (http://thefunnythingispodcast.com/)

Work continues to proceed on my comedy whodunnit play A Madness Most Discreet… After finishing the second draft, I organised a read-through with eight fantastic actors back in October, to get a better idea of how it all played, how the characters were working (or not), how the story was working (or not) and how the gags were working (or not).
I was delighted with the read-through and so grateful to my actor friends who all gave BRILLIANT performances. A lot of suggestions came out of the read-through; I received loads of feedback and also had a lot of new ideas of my own on how to make parts of it better. So I set about incorporating all of that new information into the script – tweaking and honing, tweaking and honing, tweaking and honing – which resulted, a week ago, in this:

Now I’ve sent that third draft off to my agent so that we can collectively work out what the best next steps may be. Will it ever see the light of day? Dunno. But in the meantime, I’m soldiering on, because I believe in this thing, dammit!

And now that that’s with them, I’ve cleared the decks and finally, finally begun work in earnest on the sequel to my novel Symphony Under Siege. I’ve had various ideas for a sequel story over the last couple of years; a story that grows organically out of the events in the first novel… and I now feel confident enough in the story I’ve got to begin planning it out. I’m excited about travelling back to the world of the Symphony, and am looking forward to finding out what all those folks have been up to! So my first (self-imposed) deadline with this project is to get the whole thing thoroughly planned out, chapter-by-chapter, by December 31^st.

And that’s just about it for now… and for 2023. And now, for no particular reason, I’ll leave you with a pic of that time on Mad As Hell when Tosh, Christie, Emily & I got to be The Young Ones.

Merry Christmas everybody, and a Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Stephen

*Ah, the life of an actor, eh?

3rd August, 2023.

I hope you’re all well on this very sunny Thursday afternoon. (Well, it’s sunny where I am, anyway.) I have three things to talk about today… because this is turning out to be quite a chockablock, jam-packed week.

Firstly, last Sunday night I was lucky enough to attend the TV Week Logie Awards as a guest (for the first time since 2007!) rather than its writer, because Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell was nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy Program AND Most Popular Comedy Program!

But we lost both of those. Ah well, C’est La Logie…

Shaun was also nominated for the Gold Logie and Most Popular Presenter… but unfortunately, he didn’t get to take home either of those trophies either. Despite all this, we all still all managed to have a great time at AustralianTelevision’sNightOfNightsWhenTheBrightestClichesComeOutToShine…;

Then, the very next night (Monday), I found myself on stage at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall in front of 2,300 people, doing a John Cleese impression… for John Cleese.

Hmm, perhaps I should provide a bit of background to this…

Back on July 19th, I was one of the writers – and one of the roasters – on The Australian Roast of John Cleese, a live event at Crown Palladium that was shot by Channel 7, and which will be airing sometime later this year, as a 90-minute special. (Don’t worry – I’ll tell you exactly when as soon as I know. Just try and stop me!)
Anyway, after that show, I got talking to John and to his tour manager, and John invited me to come up on stage with him on the second of his Melbourne shows! It was a truly joyous experience, where I reprised some of the stuff I did in the roast. It got some good laughs… including some from the man himself!

Of course, taking photos at this event was strictly prohibited.
I’m so glad my friend took one anyway.

And finally today, I wanted to tell you about an exciting thing I’ll be doing this Saturday night (August 5th) in North Fitzroy. It’s a Variety Night to raise funds for refugees, and I’ll be doing a 10-minute slot, in which I plan to condense my 50-minute Comedy Festival show Letters From My Heroes down to a very abridged, pared-back, stripped-down 10-minute version.

… but still with a Big Musical Finish.

Can I do it?! Am I crazy to try? Is it even possible?! To find out, please consider coming along on Saturday night. It should be a great gig and it’s all for a very, very good cause.

Tickets and information can be found right HERE!

And that’s it for this update! Thank you for reading this far, and I’ll talk to you again soon (if I don’t see you on Saturday night). And if I DO see you on Saturday night, please come over and say Hi. I’m generally quite friendly, as a rule…

Cheers,
Stephen