10 Questions With Adam Zwar

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 Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, and the new series of Saved By the Bell.Alongside Patrick Brammall, Trent reimagined No Activity for an American audience on CBS and is now the set up director and executive producer of the US’s number one comedy, Ghosts. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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

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, you’d talk to Ed.Certainly, if you need someone to give you a rousing speech that will make you feel like you can lift a mountain, Ed’s the guy to go to.Ed came up through theatre sports and worked in radio promotions before becoming Tony Martin’s co-host on Get This.Then, when Get This was inexplicably pulled off the air despite bumper ratings, Ed became the co-host on Nova’s Hughesy and Kate.Many radio gigs followed, as well as a stint in LA and now he’s hosting

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 of Dickson in the house of representatives. It was a seat she held until 2001.I always liked Cheryl’s easy-going manner and it was during her time as leader of the Democrats that you always felt - given the right conditions, they might just challenge one of the major parties.In this interview, Cheryl discusses the highs and lows of being the third party option, the pressure politics puts on a marriage, suddenly realising you’re famous and how her nine year old grandson requested to

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. 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 Ciao Bella where she charts the highs and lows of her and her family’s relocation to Italy for two years, which took in a pandemic.Most of us know Kate from her radio partnership with Dave Hughes, which went from Nova to Kiis, to the Hit network and then eventually ended in Italy.Because Kate and I had been living overseas for a period – we had a lot of catching up to do. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly Med

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, including coaching, selecting and commentating as well as reflections from his playing days.Here, we talk about all that PLUS rooming with Rod Marsh.More - https://www.nearly.com.au/10-questions-with-greg-chappell/ SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 the great, heart-warming, soul cleansing nights of theatre I’ve seen. As well as the live shows, Tim has also hosted and produced the acclaimed ABC documentaries Streets of Your Town and Designing a Legacy, which profiles the Australian psyche via the houses we choose to build and live in. 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 his comedy canon. 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 early moments in my life where I realised that there’s rarely any such thing as justice.From Toowoomba, Meshel moved to Melbourne and started doing stand-up comedy. Her one-woman show The W***e Whisperer, which charted her time as a receptionist in a brothel,  was a huge critical and commercial success playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe and the Sydney Opera House.From there, she started doing radio on Triple R and then on Nova and Kiis. And TV stints include

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 way he won the gig on MasterChef - a juggernaut of a show which played in 110 countries to an audience of 180 million people.He starred on MasterChef for 11 seasons and now he has written his eighth book – Matt Preston’s World of Flavour where, among other things, he has uncovered the genesis of spaghetti Bolognese.Spoiler: It’s actually an Australian invention. Or more accurately - a South Australian invention.More about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/S

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 recently, great cameos in Utopia and Fisk. He was also the head writer on Totally Full Frontal, and with the screenwriter, Mark O’Toole, he wrote the feature films Take Away and You and Your Stupid Mate. We start Another 10 Questions with – How do you think your fellow workers would describe you? SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar ANOTHER 10 QUESTIONS:1: How do you think your fellow workers would describe you? 2:

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 he’s bringing up two girls and doing some of the best stand up of his life.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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 Fincher’s Mindhunter on Netflix and the mini-series, Deadline Gallipoli.He’s possibly Australia’s most in demand screenwriter, known for his willingness to tackle the weighty emotional subjects that others might see as too dangerous or too difficult to make.Nitram premiered at Cannes a few months ago where the response to the film was unaminously positive. And that’s where my conversation with Shaun started.When asked about the time he was most happy, he said 

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 quite some time and we talk about all of them here.As usual I started our conversation by asking George when she was most happy. Back To The Rafters is available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly MeMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.

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 Brisbane launching his new stage show, HughMan, which is a mixture of disco and old school cabaret, while a new series of Packed to the Rafters returns to Amazon Prime.In our chat, we talk about religion, spirituality and the importance in coming from a tough Irish Catholic family. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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 omnystu

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 chronicled Chris’s life at a Bondi Junction clinic.Along the way, there were shows for CBS and Animal Planet in the US before broadening his hosting palette to include The Living Room and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.During our chat, Dr Chris tells some glorious animal stories and recounts a botched meeting with Nelson Mandela.As usual I started by asking Dr Chris, when he was most happy.More about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/See omnystudi

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 one.I loved the book, and here we dig even deeper into his hilarious struggle to make friends in his adopted country, how he cries nearly as much as I do and the sessions he had with an unconventional therapist.Right at the end, I asked what I thought was a professional question about how he acquired such a resonant voice – and the answer was surprisingly personal.\ SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly Media.More about O

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 .  SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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. Subscribe at adamzwar.substack.com

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 interview, she leaves nothing in the shed. For your reference, “John” is her husband, and her children are “Jordie” and “Bonnie”.And “Judith” is of course Judith Lucy. As usual, I started by asking Denise, when she was most happy. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - 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 omny