Josh Earl gives back to comedy roadshow that sparked his passion

The 36-year-old was 17 when he travelled to Launceston from his home town of Burnie in north-west Tasmania to see a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.

The bill included Tripod and Wil Anderson and Earl was left inspired. He instantly knew he wanted to be a comedian.

“Triple J [radio] was really important to me and both of them had been on Triple J a fair bit, so it was like, ‘wow I get to see these guys be funny and live’,” Earl says.

“There’s something about live stand-up and you can’t get that same feeling when watching on TV. You can see great bands, but seeing live stand-up, I think, is the best art form to see live.”

Two decades later the former Spicks and Specks host is living his dream as a comedian, performing stand-up, plus writing for Network Ten’s The Project and hosting his own successful podcast quiz show, Don’t You Know Who I Am?

Earl also has the opportunity to inspire the next generation of comedians, who perhaps like him, feel trapped by the cultural isolation of regional areas, when the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow continues its national tour through regional NSW this month.

The roadshow will visit various country towns like Gunnedah, Quirindi, Glen Innes and Nowra, plus regional cities like Newcastle, Wollongong and Wagga Wagga.

Earl is best known for his funny songs on topics such as his past career as a librarian, the iconic Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book and about the frustrations of using Skype with your cyber-challenged parents.

Does the Melbourne-based Earl modify or tailor his shows for country audiences?

“Everyone has the internet now and the same references,” he says. “It’s just a matter of going into the town.

“A lot of comedians make the mistake of not doing anything. They just stay at the hotel and come straight to the gig and talk to the town.

“Even if you take an hour or two hours to walk through and get a feel for the town, it’s pretty easy to do that, and it’s a nice way to break up the touring.”

On the latest roadshow tour Earl will be joined by MC Bob Franklin, Melbourne 3RRR breakfast host Geraldine Hickey, Sydney’s Tom Cashman and rising English comic Suzi Ruffell.

Earl describes the travelling roadshow like a “school camp” where you’ve been paired with “the funniest people in town.”

Surprisingly, he says there’s very little showbiz ego or competitiveness behind the curtains. 

“They’re really good in booking people who are comfortable where they are in the comedy circuit,” he says.

“If you’ve been chosen by the comedy festival to do roadshow it’s a big tick for your career. The Comedy Festival in Melbourne thinks I’m a good enough act to do this.

“I’m not one of those people who wants to be the best every night because you know people have different tastes. You mightn’t be everyone’s favourite, but at a gig of 800 there might be 100 where you were their favourite.”

However, it’s a different story at The Project. Earl is part of a five-person writing crew, whose job is to craft jokes for hosts Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly to use with their nightly news stories.

“It’s really good work out for your comedy muscle,” he says. “You go in and they give you six stories to write as many jokes as you can and you go home and watch the TV show and some get up and some don’t.

“It’s an interesting job because they go ‘here’s the topic and here’s what Carrie or Waleed are going to read out’. They write the set-up and we do the punchline.

“You’ve got five of us in a room and that’s more competitive than a comedy roadshow. There’s people going, ‘I’ve got ideas but I’m not showing them until 5.20pm’ when you’ve got to share the jokes.”

While The Project is consistently among Network Ten’s highest-rated shows, Earl’s career in television has experienced pain.

In 2014 Earl scored his biggest break when he was named host of the rebooted music quiz show Spicks and Specks on ABC.

The first incarnation of the program hosted by Adam Hills ran for seven seasons until 2011 and repeats of the show remain popular on ABC2. 

But Earl and his panelists Ella Hopper from Killing Heidi and comedian Adam Richard were unable to replicate its predecessor’s popularity and Spicks and Specks was axed after one season.

“At the time my second son was born and I was high on that, but super low because my dream job of working in music and comedy and on TV was taken away from me,” Earl says.

“It was hard to deal with, but there’s no ill will. I’m happy with what we put out there.” 

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow comes to the Civic Theatre from June 8 to 10 and the Cessnock Performing Arts Centre next Thursday.