EDINBURGH 2026: Review: TOM BALLARD: BE FUNNY CHALLENGE (IMPOSSIBLE), Monkey Barrel
After a controversial 2025, Tom Ballard is back at Edinburgh Fringe with a new show.
At the beginning of last year, Tom Ballard was cancelled after a routine about the outlawing of the seig heil in his home state of Victoria and Elon Musk’s bizarre choice of gesture at Trump’s inauguration was recorded by an audience member who then wrote about it in the media. He lost work, was subject to a whole host of online commentary and even a government minister got involved.
So, Be Funny Challenge (Impossible) is in part a response to that period of his life as well as the rise in right-wing thinking and out-and-out fascism across the globe. We cover Trump, Andrew Tate, the manosphere, the Israel-Gaza war, anti-semitism and more. And there is the slickest slide deck you’ve ever seen to go alongside it.
Tom may also have been suffering from a heavy cold when I saw him gig, Fringe flu comes for us all in the end, but that didn’t seem to impact his boundless energy on stage.
However, the room at Monkey Barrel at O’Neills (The Tron) didn’t feel like the right setting for this show. Not only because, as Tom says, talking about fascism in an underground bunker is a bit on the nose but his loud, passionate style of comedy needs a larger space to fill. As do the big topics he's tackling. The audience is just too close to the stage to be yelled at about Nazis. It’s all right-on stuff though.
Importantly, Tom acknowledges the context of when his comedy club joke was performed and the pain it caused for that audience member. It’s clear he had no intention to upset anyone, except for fascists obviously.
Comedy remains an important tool to speak out about injustice, and Tom wants to use his prowess and platform to continue to do so.
Be Funny Challenge (Impossible) runs at O'Neill's (The Tron) at Monkey Barrel Comedy until 30 August.
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