The World Keeps Happening

Tom Ballard approaches global catastrophe with the manic energy of someone who has accepted the end times but still wants to get some dirty jokes in before the collapse. He attempts to systematically fix the world’s most daunting crises, jumping from the war on drugs and the threat of global terrorism to the sluggish pace of Australia’s marriage equality debate, balancing this high-level panic with details of his own casual drug use and the competitive exhaustion of using hookup apps. Filmed at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne for the Stan streaming service’s One Night Stan series, this set captured Ballard at a professional high point. The performance earned him nominations for Best Show at both the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016, alongside a Helpmann Award. His style is loud and physical, using his own anxieties about a world in decline to justify a mix of political rage and explicit sexual anecdotes.