10 Questions With Adam Zwar

Nick Boshier’s entry into showbusiness was via community radio and managing the singer-songwriter, Lior.Then, in 2008 he made Youtube viral sensations “Trent From Punchy”, which is currently sitting on 9 million views, and “Beached AZ”, an animation about a Kiwi whale, that reached 10 million views, sold 80,000 T-shirts and won the hearts of The Flight of the Conchords.After those early videos, Nick went on to develop the ubiquitous Bondi Hipsters with Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren, the ABC comedy, Soul Mates, and now the Amazon series, The Moth Effect.Here Nick talks about the pitfalls of all-boy private schools, the influence of his father and his determination to work with great people. 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.sub

He’s one of the few performers on Australian television who has fans from multiple generations. First, there were the Comedy Company fans who loved him as Uncle Arthur, then there were the Russell Coight fans – and then the Kath and Kim fans who were beguiled by his multiple outings as Kel Knight.I speak of course of the great and enduring, Glenn Robbins.In this episode, we chart his beginnings in performance – from turning his back on being a town planner, to taking a drama teaching degree, before appearing in commercials and then becoming one of our best known and funniest actors.There’s the public side of what Glenn does, but there’s also all the work he does behind the scenes nurturing up and coming writers and performers – most notably on The Ronny Johns Half Hour and Thank God You’re Here. His advice has been invaluable to me over the years and he’s one of those people who makes you feel better about the world after spending time in his company.It was an h

One of the people I’ve known longest and admire most in the Australian entertainment industry and that’s Dan Ilic. Dan’s had success on Australian television thanks to writing and starring in such shows as The Ronny Johns Half Hour, Hungry Beast and Can of Worms, and then taking on the grown-up jobs of executive producing and showrunning ABC shows Tonightly and At Home Alone Together, which could really do with another series right now.He’s also had stints producing satirical comedy for Al Jazeera and Fusion in the US. But because careers in entertainment don’t progress in a linear fashion, whenever there’s been a down time, Dan has always gone back to generating his own work whether it be live comedy, documentary, or satirical ads and his output is always slick and funny and creates a splash.Perhaps his most enduring work is his award winning comedy podcast A Rational Fear - with its overarching focus on Climate Change.In this episode, we talk about that plus we discuss Da

One of my favourite actors – a performer who can do comedy and drama, stage and screen, and that’s Kat Stewart. Kat got a degree in marketing and arts before attending the National Theatre drama school at night while working as a publicist during the day.After graduating, she started making guest appearances on The Secret Life of Us, Stingers and Blue Heelers before landing her first leading role on BBC’s Supernova opposite Rob Brydon.After that, came her award-winning turn as Roberta Williams in Underbelly – followed by Newstopia, Tangle, Offspring, Mr and Mrs Murder and now Five Bedrooms.We discuss most of those shows in this interview and a few more.But before getting to the questions, we talked about our childhoods and Kat happened to mention she went to school with Portia De Rossi. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in part by Nearly Media. Looking for another podcast between episodes of 10 Questions?The Junkees wi

You’d know Mark from his brilliantly observed sketches for The Roast on ABC 2, The Feed on SBS and most recently for 7.30 on ABC.He’s also hosted the channel 10 quiz show, Pointless and, along with his co-writer Evan Williams, has written the book On Politics and Stuff.Which is bloody funny.I don’t want to generalise, but in comedy, people are generally scoundrels, but Mark’s one of the decent ones.And sorry to completely embarrass him, but that decency shines through here. 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

Jan Fran was born in Lebanon, came to Australia when she was a kid, grew up in Bankstown, went to the University of Technology in Sydney, then started working for SBS current affairs shows Dateline and Insight before becoming a foreign correspondent and filing from Bangladesh and then Uganda.When she returned Australia she became a presenter on SBS’s the Feed.And it was her work on a Feed segment called The Frant, which won her a 2019 Walkley Award.Since then, Jan Fran has appeared on Q and A, The Today Show, Studio 10, and is a regular on The Project.We talked about her superman husband, her father’s dislike of television even though even though that would end up being his daughter’s career, and her burgeoning squash game. 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 p

Scott rose to prominence in 2005 with the release of his micro-budget independent feature The Magician – a mockumentary about a hitman called Ray Shoesmith.We’ll talk about how that came into being as the show unfolds.Then more than a decade went by before Scott and Nash Edgerton, one of the producers on The Magician, turned Ray Shoesmith’s life into a TV series called Mr InBetween, with Scott writing and starring and Nash directing.The show was picked up by FX and since then Scott has won plaudits all over the world for his acting and writing, including winning AACTA and Logie awards. Where to watch Mr Inbetween - justwatch.com 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

Most people know Merrick from his long-time radio partnership with Tim Ross, who I interviewed for this show in October 2017.Merrick and Rosso started on Triple J in 1998, moved to Nova in 2001 and ended their 11-year partnership in 2009.During that time, they also made the TV shows “Planet Merrick and Rosso” and “The Merrick and Rosso Show” for the Comedy Channel, “Merrick and Rosso Unplanned” for Channel Nine, and “The B Team” for Channel 10.When their partnership ended, Merrick went on to host radio shows on Triple M and 2Day Fm including “Merrick and the Highway Patrol” and “Merrick and Australia” which turned into “Merrickville”.\As an actor, Merrick appeared as an adviser to the Prime Minister in Working Dog’s 2008 series “The Hollowmen” opposite Lachy Hulme and Rob Sitch, and Marty Johnston in 2009’s “Underbelly: The Tale of Two Cities.”Last year, Merrick was one of three celebrities

Nell started her career writing for Spy Magazine and Vanity Fair. Since then, she’s written for The Simpsons, Letterman, Murphy Brown, Newhart, NCIS, she created Sabrina The Teenage Witch, she was the executive producer on Charmed. She has written jokes for Obama. She co-wrote Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book, Lean In. And her autobiography, Just the Funny Parts, is an enthralling book. If you’re ever stuck, or feeling alone as a writer, dip into Just the Funny Parts, and I’m certain it’ll bring you out of your funk and inspire you to stay the course. It certainly did that for me.I interviewed Nell in Sydney in front of a live audience at the invitation of Jungle Entertainment where she is working with a bunch of Australian writers. SocialsTwitter - Adam ZwarFacebook - Adam Zwar 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in party by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-wi

In light of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival we're replaying a handful of shows.This episode was first published 9 December 2015.He's since morphed into the sitting Prime Minister on occasions. Check out the videos. 2018 MICF Show Lawrence Mooney: An Evening with Malcolm TurnbullRunning until 22 April 2018Athenaeum Theatre Two (map)Tickets - $30 to $42 SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Lawrence MooneyFacebook - Adam Zwar / Unofficial Malcolm Turnbull 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in party by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comMore 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

In light of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival we're replaying some comedians who've answered 10 Questions. 2018 MICF ShowFiona O'Loughlin: "Gap Year"Tickets available now.Shows available on 10th and 15th of April.Melbourne Town Hall, Lower Town HallPrice: $25 - $37 This episode was first published 13 February 2017.The interview takes place after Fiona was in a coma for a month, then a stint in rehab.Lately, Fiona won the fourth season of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here" SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Fiona O'LoughlinFacebook - Adam Zwar / Fiona O'Loughlin 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in party by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comMore 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

In light of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival we're replaying a handful of shows.This episode was first published 29 Feb 2016Sam had won the Barry Award in 2015 for his show "Spaghetti for Breakfast". 2018 MICF Show Sam Simmons Radical Women of Latin American Art, 1960-1985Running until 22 April 2018Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne.Tickets - $27 to $42 SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Sam SimmonsFacebook - Adam Zwar / Sam Simmons 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced in party by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adamzwar.substack.com

The doyen of entertainment journalism, Angela Bishop. She’s been with Network 10 for 29 years and she’s interviewed everyone from U2 to Julia Roberts and she was one of the last journalists to interview the legendary Audrey Hepburn.Not only has she been on the news every night for nearly three decades, but she’s always on the red carpet at the Emmys, The Oscars, and the Golden Globes as well as all of the Australian award shows and premieres. She was on Hinch, Alan Jones Live, she was the resident entertainment reporter on E News and she was a permanent guest on The Panel. Basically, if you’re an international celebrity coming to Australia, I would suggest it was a wasted trip if you didn’t talk to Ange.Her mother is of course the well known and long time Liberal politician Bronwyn Bishop.Her father was a judge. She talks about her parents in the interview. And she also talks about her husband Peter, who tragically passed away in November from a rare cancer. His passing leaves An

The champion Australian leg spinner, Stuart MacGill.Now, I’d probably be happy to devote more of this podcast to cricket, but I’ve held off because I wanted to speak to a cricketer who thinks a little deeper about life and the world than your average test legend.In cricketing terms, Stuart was an incredibly gifted leg spin bowler who turned the ball a mile and had a brilliant test average, and who just happened to come along at the same time as the greatest of all leg spinner bowlers, Shane Warne.But MacGill never tried to compete with Warne. Warne was all bravado and glamour – whereas MacGill held his emotions in check. The facts are that MacGill is the seventh quickest in history to get 200 wickets – getting to the milestone faster than both Warne and the all time greatest wicket taker, Muttiah Muralitharan.Outside of cricket, Stuart’s a voracious reader – famously reading 42 novels on a tour of Pakistan. He is politically aware – once boycotting a tour of Zimbabwe

Tracey Spicer was my favourite newsreader in the 90s and 2000s – back in the days when you had a favourite newsreader because there were only about 12 of them.But I had no idea what was going on for her behind the scenes – the general harassment and discrimination.All this she talks about in her book,The Good Girl Stripped Bare, which has just joined the best seller list.Since her newsreading days for Ten and then Sky News, Tracey’s been a columnist and documentary producer.  But more recently, she’s been an advocate for women in the workplace which has led to her high profile investigation of sexual harassment in Australia media.The investigation has left Tracey physically and mentally exhausted. She talks about that in the interview. Tracey’s got broad shoulders – and over a thousand women who have been horribly treated by work colleagues are relying on her to tell their story, which in turn, will hopefully bring about a seismic change in how people interact with eac

One of the best things about moving to the US is that I’ve met so many great Australians.That wasn’t the plan. But that’s how it’s worked out.And one of the greatest of these Australians is the best selling author, wild-life documentarian and former Paratrooper, Bradley Trevor Greive.BTG, as we call him, has sold 30 million books in 29 languages across 115 countries. The Blue Day Book is certainly what launched him, but more recently there’s been Penguin Bloom, which is being made into a movie starring Naomi Watts.BTG’s also an animal expert. He used to be one of those rugged Australians who’d showcase animals on Chelsea Lately and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.These days he hosts documentaries for Animal Planet about bears. But before that and the best selling author stuff, he was Platoon Commander in the Australian army.Me, BTG and one my cats sat down for this interview in my living room and I started by asking him when he was most happy.Get The Blue

My guest is former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.For those who live outside Australia, Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and then briefly again in 2013.The circumstances of his resignation in 2010 and reemergence in 2013 is a dramatic story and familiar to every Australian. And every Australian has an opinion on it. So if you like Shakespearean- style histories, then I invite you to do some research.Kevin Rudd’s first memoir Not For the Faint-Hearted: A Personal Reflection On Life, Politics and Purpose is out now thanks to Pan Macmillan.I chatted with him via Skype from Oxford, where he’d just spoken to some students and, as usual my first question was, “When were you most happy?” SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Kevin RuddFacebook - Adam Zwar / Kevin Rudd 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/

Former advertising copywriter turned social commentator turned novelist Jane Caro is filled with wisdom. 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 Transfer, then invited her to be on Agony, and was immediately bowled over by her clear thinking and the effortless way she gets her points across.For those wanting to hear Jane speak beyond this interview and her regular spot on Sunrise can check her out when she MCs the Global Atheist Convention in February next year. There, she’ll be speaking alongside Salman Rushdie and Richard Dawkins.More information - http://atheistconvention.org.au/ 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.com SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Jane Caro Facebook - Adam Zwar / Jane CaroMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/See omnystudio.com/listener for priva

Today’s guest is the broadcaster and comedian, Tim Ross.I made a show back in 2011 on the ABC called Agony Uncles – and Tim was literally the first person I approached to be on the show.I’d been a fan of his since he was Triple J with his comedy partner Merrick Watts. And I’d followed him through his various radio and TV incarnations and felt that he’d be perfect for Agony Uncles as he had an always hilarious perspective on the Australian male.These days he’s all about architecture and design – having made the hugely success ABC show, Streets of Your Town, while touring his live show Man About The House all over the world. 10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.comEverything Tim Ross you can find here - timross.com.auSocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Nearly Facebook - Adam Zwar / NearlyMore about Out of the Question: https://www.nearly.com.au/out-of-the-question-with-adam-zwar/See omnystudio.com/listen

Smart guy. Dux of his school. Studied law at university. But quit Law for comedy. He was soon picked up by Triple J and hosted its breakfast show for four years before quitting that for comedy.Since then he’s hosted an episode of Q and A, The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras on SBS and the ABC panel show, Reality Check.And along the way, he has performed some ground breaking and award winning one man comedy shows.In the interview, we talk about his comedy influences, his sense of social justice and he says that even if Australia votes No in the marriage equality postal survey, the fight for equal rights will go on.10 Questions with Adam Zwar is produced by Nearly.On the web -10questionswithadamzwar.com SocialsTwitter - Adam Zwar / Tom Ballard / Nearly Facebook - Adam Zwar / Tom Ballard / NearlyMore 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