If there’s one thing Tom Gleeson knows how to do well, it’s to make us squirm with laughter. From Hard Quiz to Thank God You’re Here to his stand-up comedy gigs, Tom’s winning formula of whip-smart jibes mixed with deadpan delivery has been keeping audiences entertained, and his contemporaries on their toes, for nearly 30 years.
Come to think of it, does he know just how to make us squirm?
“I just think about things I see and I say them out loud,” the 49-year-old tells TV WEEK. “I guess the normal thing to do in polite society is to screen what you say. You think, ‘Oh, maybe I won’t say that because it might hurt their feelings.’ Whereas when I’m on set, when I think of something, I just say it.”
It’s a persona that has perhaps bled through to his everyday life, too.
“I’m pretty much the same,” he says. “Part of it is just an act, and making it work for TV, but a huge part of it is just honesty.”
Tom adds that it’s this schtick that allows him to not “waste any time being polite”.
“Hosting a show is so much easier when you’re not having to pander to other people’s feelings,” he says. “Because you can waste a lot of time on a TV show making sure that everybody’s happy.”
And ensuring everyone is happy and comfortable is definitely not on the agenda on Taskmaster Australia, the hilarious Network 10 panel show that returns to our screens this week.
This second season sees a new batch of brave comedians – Wil Anderson, Josh Thomas, Anne Edmonds, Lloyd Langford and Jenny Tian – battle it out through a series of random tasks set by host Tom and his assistant, Tom “Lesser Tom” Cashman.
It’s a show that’s so funny, it’s even made Tom break his famous stoic stance.
“I mean, I try not to [laugh],” he says. “I don’t like when some people do panel shows and it feels like they’re laughing at anything. My deal is I try to hold it in until something genuinely funny happens.”
And what is “genuinely funny” for a comedian who’s been in the industry for decades?
“I find it really funny when the comedians start to turn on each other,” he says with a laugh. “There’s a bit of that this season.”
While he loves to witness the degradation of other comedians, Tom acknowledges that he has also been on the receiving end of criticism throughout his career, but has been around long enough now to take it on the chin.
“Everyone says you shouldn’t read the [social media] comments, but I’ve found those people are really soft – they can’t handle the critique,” he says. “Whereas I don’t care. If people go online and tell me I’m not funny, first of all, that’s patently not true. I’ve been doing it full-time for 30 years – like, it’s not a fluke.
“But you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt, because if I’m giving everyone a poke in the eye, sometimes people are doing the same to me because they think it’s part of the fun!”
Tom notes that while he’s “happy to correct” any trolls on social media, he doesn’t bat an eyelid when it comes to “flat-out abuse”.
“It’s also pretty hard to be hurt when you’re dead inside,” he jokes. “I’ve been doing it too long to be upset.”
That resilience had never been tested quite like it was in 2019, however, when his acceptance speech for the TV WEEK Gold Logie Award caused an uproar not only with the public, but his peers.
In his speech, he took aim at his fellow nominees and boasted about his campaign strategy, which some deemed ungrateful.
And now, with the 2024 Logie Award nominations looming, does Tom think he’ll be taking to the podium again?
“Well, first I need to be nominated. And it’s now decided by a group of industry experts, which I’m sure were put together to avoid me being nominated ever again,” he laughs.
“But even if I was, when I won, I told everyone that it’d be fun to vote for me because I’ll pay out the Logies and give a funny speech – and so I’ve done that, I can’t do it again.
“And if I did ever get nominated again, I suspect it will be TV WEEK’s way of punishing me because they’ll want me to sit through someone else’s dull speech!”
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