Having a successful podcast can transform a comic’s career, while even niche titles can be immensely valuable in broadening a comedian’s audience, developing new skills and allowing creators to follow their passions and interests.
Here, Arts Hub talks to four Australian comics on the role podcasting has played in their careers.
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Lizzy Hoo
Since debuting late last year, Lizzy Hoo’s podcast S**tuations has told stories of heartbreak, divorce and professional woe, but it originally had a very different focus. “This is a gross origin story, but we were all sharing our worst travel diarrhoea stories, and I [thought], ‘I need to make a podcast about this!’,” she laughs.
After thinking better of that idea (“The ending would always be the same,” she laments), Hoo has thoroughly enjoyed working on the podcast and getting to hear dramatic stories, often ones that her comedian guests have never told in their shows.
She’s also hosted the Grand Gestures podcast, where she explores family folklore and rituals with prominent Australians and their grandparents. It has proved a richly rewarding project. “Every interview I did for that, I felt very honoured to have heard the story,” she says. Working on a more serious podcast also broadened her skillset. “It was definitely something I wasn’t used to. When you do comedy podcasts, you’re riffing, bantering and talking over the top of each other, whereas with Grand Gestures, I was more of a [facilitator]. My role was to move the story along rather than interrupt and give my take.”
Family stories have been a constant in Hoo’s stand-up, and fans will be glad to hear there are plenty of anecdotes about her father Chan in her new hour, Deja Hoo. “It’s a continuation of last year’s show, but also a bit dark; my parents are getting old, and we bond over dark jokes and bullying, basically. You never know how a show will go, but I’ve been having a lot of fun; I’m really enjoying doing it.”
Hoo has discovered many of her favourite comics through podcasts, and imagines that appearing on popular titles like Wilosophy With Wil Anderson would have introduced her to new fans. She says that being a full-time podcaster in Australia is tough, but achievable (she gives the example of Em Rusciano), though, for her, she’s not focused on the bottom line. “Doing a [stand-up] show once a year is not enough anymore,” she explains. “I feel like audiences want to keep in touch with you throughout the year … a podcast is a really good way to keep that connection.”
Dave Warneke
“This is the sequel that nobody asked for, but the sequel’s always better, right?” Dave Warneke says of his new comedy show, Dave Warneke Dates The Entire Audience. Reprising a concept Warneke first did with Sammy Peterson (who plays his alcoholic manager) a decade ago, the interactive event involves the audience voting on different ‘dates’ in the show and ultimately deciding whether they want to keep seeing Dave. “It’s great fun, and it changes every night. We’re sort of improvising with each other as much as with the audience.”
As well as his stand-up work and live quiz shows, Warneke is known as one third of Do Go On with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. The beloved ‘fact-based comedy podcast’, will celebrate its 500th episode with a huge live show in April. “There is a core group of people that see all the [live] podcasts and come down to our [solo] shows,” Warneke explains. “It’s great having that in-built audience, and I’ve found they’re usually pretty comedy-savvy people.”
Warneke says the trio has always released new episodes of the podcast at the same time, and the consistency has helped it catch on. The show initially started out with just Stewart and Warneke, but both felt it was lacking something and that they needed to get mutual friend Jess Perkins involved. “We rerecorded those first episodes, and they were just so much better. That is another piece of advice; if you’re not super happy with your first episodes, you can keep them back and release them when you’re a 100% satisfied with them; it’ll be much better for the long-term prospects of the show.”
A significant amount of work goes into running Do Go On; the trio spend one day a week recording, while doing the research for each episode takes another couple of days. They now have a producer to help with the audio, and they divide up the work on merchandising, promotion and finance. “As it’s grown, it’s become more and more like a job, I guess, and other work has dropped away,” Warneke reflects. “But I’ve got to say, it’s still super fun after all these years.”
Mish Wittrup
This time last year, Mish Wittrup was approaching the comedy festival season with a sense of dread. Once she got through the stressful process, she resolved that 2025 would be different. “I decided that there is a reason I’m doing this, so I may as well enjoy it,” she tells Arts Hub. “We put so much into it, so why not be happy? I wouldn’t say I’m relaxed [this year], but I’m letting myself enjoy it this time around.”
Her new show, Off With Her Head!, tells the story of Wittrup Googling herself for the first time to write a biography for a new job. “It’s essentially the existential crisis that sent me into, and my legacy, and what 16-year-old Mish would think about what came up.”
Wittrup’s career has spanned sketch comedy, acting and stand-up, and she also co-hosts the long-running The Mish and Zach Podcast. She says many listeners to the podcast have now come to her stand-up shows. “Zach is an Aunty Donna, so he’s very established, and I kind of jumped on board. But the people who listen are incredibly loyal. They get it, and it’s so much fun.”
Their podcast wasn’t developed with any lofty career goals in mind; it was a passion project and a way for old friends to stay in touch. “Zach and I do the podcast for us… It is so niche and, initially, hardly anyone listened, but we’ve enjoyed it so much.”
While a production company has since come on board to help them with tasks like editing, the pair still has creative control and has enjoyed diving into such arcane topics as decades-old episodes of Masterchef and the oeuvre of character actor John Leguizamo in their weekly ‘Leguizamarama’ episodes. Wittrup laments with a laugh that they can now never meet their idol. “We look like a couple of freaks! We’re just two weird, fringy comedians from Melbourne that have dedicated a ridiculous amount of time to watching his entire filmography.”
At acting school, teachers counselled Wittrup and colleagues to always keep creating their own work. It’s advice that has stuck with her. “If, for the rest of my life, I could be making fun stuff with good people, having a laugh and collaborating with friends, that would be amazing.”
Aditya Gautam
When Aditya Gautam talks to ArtsHub, he’s in Perth for Fringe World, where he’s doing early dates for his Unskilled Immigrant show, which consists of four stories about love, including his time at a professional cookery college and the climax of a Bollywood film that stayed with him.
“I’m enjoying it more than the last solo show, and it’s getting closer to what I want it to be,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of Indians coming to the show this time, and I feel it’s the most honest representation of my experience as an Indian immigrant in Australia. I’ve got feedback from a lot of Indians that they feel it’s very honest, which, for me, is the main goal of the show, that people say ‘Yes, that’s exactly how it is’.”
Gautam first got involved in podcasting back in 2018 when the BBC invited him to be part of a podcast on the impact of pornography in India, a topic that he had researched for his book Pornistan. “They got me on it to interview me, and I interviewed a lot of other people, and that was my first exposure to it, and I built a bit of experience.”
More recently, Gautam successfully pitched his Comedy Karma podcast to SBS. The series saw him conducting in-depth interviews with some of Australia’s leading South Asian comics. He says the podcast tied in neatly with his work as a stand-up. “When I’m talking to comedians, we invariably talk about things from a comedian’s perspective. The main theme of the show is that I use jokes these comedians are doing to get into topics that I want to talk about; it’s a great way to segue into the topics the comedians have written about.”
