10 Questions With Adam Zwar

Tom Hollander is in my top five actors of all time. A rare beast who can do comedy and drama with equal, effortless brilliance. He lands a line so dry you need a glass of water just to recover—then, in the next breath, breaks your heart with those devastatingly eloquent eyes. And now, thanks to The White Lotus, he has also proved himself outstanding at dying. A Napoleon of the screen—compact but commanding, wielding presence like an emperor wields an army—he strode through Season 2, a vision of louche menace and debauched charm, before being so cruelly dispatched that I half-expected him to rise from the waves like some Mediterranean revenant, clutching an aperitivo and a bon mot. But no. Gone. Finished. Season 3 will have to stagger on without him, and be the lesser for it.So, in pre-mourning his absence, I give you two small consolations: a video in which he bemoans sharing a name with a very rich man, and possibly the greatest Life in the Day feature ever published. Read it. Read it twice. Then go and watc

One of the funnier moments from the Alan Jones era. Warning: It does contain the voice of Mark “Chopper” Read. And the voice and face of Alan Jones. PS: The studio audience was so polite! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mrzwar.substack.com

Robert William Hoskins, actor, born 26 October 1942; died 29 April 2014.It didn’t matter that this guy—who left school at 15 to become a bouncer, porter, window cleaner, and fire-eater—went on to become ridiculously famous. He was always down-to-earth: "Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth."Hoskins could play serious and scary, then turn on a dime to reveal sweetness and a big heart.A chance audition led him to the theatre, which opened the door to roles in BBC dramas and a beloved ad for British Telecom, where he delivered the catchphrase "It's good to talk." Around that time, Francis Ford Coppola cast him in The Cotton Club (1984), and suddenly he was in movies. Brazil followed, then Sweet Liberty, his Oscar-nominated turn as an ex-con in Mona Lisa, the blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Heart Condition, Mermaids, Hook, and Oliver Stone's Nixon, where he played J. Edgar Hoover."You don't go to Hollywood for art," he said in 1999. "A

This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian and TV host, Tom Ballard. You all know Tom from Triple J, multiple hosting and guesting engagements on the ABC and Channel 10 as well as the iconic Tonightly with Tom Ballard. We talk about that here. There’s also his stand up and his book, I Millennial. And now he’s back with a new Melbourne Comedy Festival Show, It Is I, which is at the Victoria Hotel from March 30 and ALSO Yes/No – A Comedy Lecture, which is also at the Victoria Hotel from April 15. Tickets at the Festival website.Tom on Tonightly being cancelled. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

Too much has happened since Dave O’Neil recorded this episode of Another 10 Questions back in the peak pandemic days of November, 2021. The point of Another 10 Questions was to invite guests back onto the pod as a catch up or check in. And since Dave was on the very first episode of this podcast back in 2015, there was a lot to talk about. Most listeners will be familiar with Dave’s work on Spicks and Specks, Agony, Randling, The Nugget, 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.Catch Dave’s new Melbourne Comedy Festival show Overweight Lightweight at Morris House from March 29 to April 9. Tickets here. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian Mel Buttle. I’ve been a long-time fan and this is our first ever chat. I particularly love her Mum character, which she occasionally releases on social media. We talk about the genesis of that here. We also talk school, jobs, growing up in Queensland and the Great Australian Bake Off which Mel co-hosted for five years. Stay tuned for her handy baking tips.You can also check out Mel’s new Melbourne Comedy Festival Show Let Me Know Either Way which is at the Melbourne Town Hall from April 11. Tickets at the Festival website. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

“I feel like I'm a very, very big energy in a world that wants you to be a little bit smaller.” - Nikki Britton.This week’s guest on Out of the Question is the comedian Nikki Britton. Apart from her live work, you might have seen Nikki on Have You Being Paying Attention, The Project and How to Stay Married.She’s returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with her show, Getting Out in Front of It, from April 11. You can get tickets at the Festival website.We had some tech difficulties in this chat, which I hope aren’t too obvious. I was stuck in a motel in Castlemaine, where I’m filming a TV show, and Nikki was in her car after doing some sort of fitness thing. Also, I had food poisoning. Which probably didn’t contribute to anything. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s guest on Out of the Question is writer, comedian, and musician, Sammy J.It’s a great chat. How could it not be? We talk about Sammy’s start in comedy, some of the formative shows he was involved in as a writer performer, the sitcom he created with Heath McIvor called Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane, and then his transition to political satire with Sammy J's Playground Politics. Now he’s taking a live version of his political satire featuring stand up, songs and storytelling around Australia. For bookings check out Sammy-j.comRight now, you can hear him host Breakfast on ABC Melbourne. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

This week, I’m extremely excited to have Osher Günsberg on the show. Most people know him from hosting the Bachelor and it’s associated spin offs I was more an Australian Idol guy who loved the on screen chemistry shared by Osher and James Mathison.  But that’s just me showing my age. During our conversation, we talk about all that, as well as his radio days, as well as getting back on the horse when you’re down as well as the extreme heights he hit hosting TV shows in the US.  Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s very special episode of Out of the Question is a Wilfred reunion episode with my fellow Wilfred creator, Jason Gann. We talk about the origins of Wilfred and where Jason is in his life right now. I met him as an acting student at the University of Southern Queensland. After graduating, he performed for the Queensland Theatre Company and the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane before moving to Melbourne and appearing in The Wedge, Wilfred, and also the feature film Rats and Cats, which screened at SXSW. He then went on  to make the Channel Ten series, Mark Loves Sharon, before moving to the US where he starred in, executive produced and was one of the writers on the US version of Wilfred, which ran for four seasons on FX.Don’t forget to check out our Wilfred Australia tribute page. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

My guest this week is satirist, humourist, author and stand up – Titus O’Reily. Titus used to be called Alex Twomey. He was a corporate guy who specialised in crisis and issues management. As we discover in this interview, Alex started writing a blog while still working in his office job and gave himself the pen name “Titus O’Reily”. The blog was hilarious and it turned out I wasn’t the only one to think so. He was soon asked to write books and perform live shows and more success followed. Now you see him regularly casting his jaundiced eye over every AFL season on radio and his regular appearances on The Front Bar where he mocks his own team, Melbourne, for being posh and my team, Carlton, for everything. His blockbuster podcast Sports Bizarre with Mick Molloy, in which Titus tries to bamboozle Mick with the strangest stories to occur in world sport, is back for another season. So check that out. This conversation looks under the bonnet of how you transition from a real job into becoming a comedy professiona

This week’s guest is my long time pal and work colleague, Sarah Wilson. Sarah is a multi-New York Times and Amazon best-selling author, podcaster, international keynote speaker, philanthropist and climate change advisor. She founded the I Quit Sugar movement – a digital wellness program and 13 award-winning books selling into 52 countries. And in 2022 she sold the business and gave everything to charity. In what seems to be a lifetime ago, Sarah was the editor of Cosmopolitan Australia; host of Season 1 of Masterchef Australia; was a journalist at the Sunday Magazine, which appeared in the Sunday Herald Sun and Sunday Telegraph – and that’s where we became mates.I always leave a chat with Sarah feeling a little wiser than I did at the start. I hope you enjoy. Get full access to The Kicker at thekicker.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve been lucky with the content offered by the guests on this podcast – but this guy has an unusually inspiring story. Working class boy, becomes a political operative at 19, works his way up to being an advisor in the Rudd and Gillard Governments before pivoting to cricket commentary and becoming one of the best-known cricket broadcasters in the world. His name is Adam Collins, and in 2018, he saw there was no Australian radio presence covering the test series between Australia and Pakistan in the UAE, so he used the money he was saving to buy a house and bought the rights to broadcast the series. He talks about the stress of that deal here, particularly finding a station he could on sell the broadcast to, as well as overcoming tech and censorship issues. Right now, the whole saga is being developed into a feature film. Quick shout out to The Final Word - the best cricket podcast going around hosted by Adam and his on-air partner, Geoff Lemon.I hope you enjoy this chat. Check out the exclusive bonus video b

This week’s guest on Out of the Question is writer, comedian, and musician, Andrew Hansen. He’s the member of The Chaser who sings and sometimes gets into trouble for the lyrics he sings. I think he’s hilarious in the style of a shorter Cleese or a stronger jawed Tim Brooke-Taylor – while, at the same time, being completely his own thing. He’s also been a radio presenter on the ABC, Triple M and Nova. And he’s toured his live stage shows around the country many times. In fact, you can catch his new show Andrew Hansen Is Cheap in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Launceston in the next few months. Just type in bio.to/andrewhansen and all will be revealed. Alright. We had a good chat. He’s a decent man, Andrew Hansen. Before the interview proper, I told him how great I thought his Billy Connolly impersonation was and we started talking about impersonation comedy in general. A serious moment when Andrew talks about what it’s like to be sued over a joke. Get full access to The Kicker at thekick

This week’s guest is the former Western Bulldogs great, turned AFL commentator, turned radio host, Luke Darcy. In 2002, Luke was awarded the AFL Players Association Most Valuable Player Award, the Australian Football Media Association Player of the Year Award, and the Herald Sun Player of the Year Award. He represented Australia in the International Rules Series against Ireland that same year and was captain of the Bulldogs in 2005/6. When he retired he proved he had a natural talent for broadcasting and remains one of the Seven Networks biggest stars – not just with its Saturday Night AFL coverage, but also hosting the Olympics. Luke recently found time in his busy schedule to launch the Empowering Leaders Podcast,  where he and his guests break down the fundamentals of a 21st century style of leadership, touching on themes such as collaboration, integrity, and innovation. Episodes drop every Wednesday. I started our discussion by asking Luke, how his colle

Welcome to the 100th episode of Out of the Question, the show formerly known has 10 Questions. It’s been a wild 100 episodes recorded over seven years – the most recent 50 coming a lot quicker than the first. I’m not going to mention individual episodes, but I want to thank all the guests who have come on and revealed their most personal stories and opinions. I’m so spoiled that when an interview subject doesn’t bear their soul, I’m  left wondering why. So thank you to all the generous guests. Quick apology for the sound quality in first fifty eps. No Zoom in those days. You either had to be in the same city or record the episode over the phone and no one wanted to do Skype. I’m sure there were other options, but I just didn’t have the bandwidth to seek them out. Now to help celebrate the big three figures, I’ve invited back the first ever guest on the podcast – Dave O’Neil. Over the past 1

It’s been seven years since I last interviewed Ash Williams for this podcast. Back then, the former Hughesy and Kate co-host had recently returned from LA, where he’d made guest appearances on Anger Management, The Exes and You’re The Worst. He also sold photos of his feet, appeared in tickling videos and worked as a shirtless waiter at a gay bar. We’ll hear all about that in this interview. But in recent years, he’s been a  morning television regular, fronted colour reports for the Australian Open and hosted Miss Universe Australia. But probably his biggest gig was appearing in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. We talk about all that in the interview and you can also check out the related video content at adamzwar.substack.com. 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

It was a treat for a sports nuffy like me to interview the football and cricket commentator, Mark Howard. I think Mark, or Howie’s as he’s commonly referred to, is one of cricket’s strongest ball-by-ball commentators. He’s always prepared. He’s got insight. And he brings out the best in the former stars offering special comments. During our chat, I learned he started his career in television as a crew-guy on the Forumula One broadcast. He then took a job as a reporter for Ten Sports, before becoming a boundary rider and commentator on Ten and Triple M’s AFL coverage. But perhaps his biggest break was commentating the Big Bash on Ten, before moving to Fox Sports – where he now commentates the network’s cricket and AFL coverage. He can also be seen hosting Fox Footy’s new late night show – Best on Ground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce

This week’s guest is one of the enduring stars of Australian comedy. He’s good-hearted, infinitely likeable, smart and funny. I speak, of course, of the great Peter Helliar. I’ll take it for granted that we all we Peter best for his on air partnership with Rove McManus as well as his work on Skithouse, Before The Game, co-hosting The Project and his super-star alter ego – the final pick in the 2004 AFL draft, Brian Strauchan.  There are also his successful TV shows, It’s a Date and How to Stay Married. And then there’s his stand-up – which is consistently funny, and also forms a heartfelt connection with the audience. Don’t forget to check out Pete’s movie podcast You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, where he talks to movie lovers about classic and beloved movies they haven't quite got around to seeing.... until now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss

This week’s guest has been part of our lives for decades. The high school debating star studied law, science and maths at university before winning Raw Comedy and embarking on a stellar radio career – first on Triple J and then on 702. I speak of course of the guy who hates being called “a math’s genius”, Adam Spencer. Still, Adam’s pretty good at maths and has written five books on the subject, including the recently released Maths 101.Adam’s TV appearances include Good News Week and The Glasshouse as well as weekly sports wrap, The Back Page. And apart from always being  in-demand for corporate gigs, he’s also co-founder of Dry July which has raised over $75 million for adult cancer services.BONUS CONTENT: IF ADAM COULD GO BACK FIVE YEARS, WHAT ADVICE WOULD HE GIVE HIMSELF? 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