What's Your Damage with Jez Watts

Chris "The Bloke" Franklin is an Australian comedy icon who's been gigging for almost 30 years. Watching him wrangle a tough crowd is a masterclass. Chris is 61 and been living large his whole life. Big respect to someone who goes this hard and is still going. He's got loads of wild stories and sat down with me during Melbourne Comedy Fest to talk about the ones we can legally discuss; getting scu...

Aves Robins is a lovely girl and talented comedian from Perth, Western Australia who's been sober for her entire life. Talking about herself doesn't come easy to her so I was really thankful that she opened up about how she lost her father as a teen through his abuse of alcohol and pills; self-harming, her deeply held insecurities, therapy, transitioning, introversion, and of course the most shame...

Unlucky For Some! Freddie Arthur is coming up strong in the Melbourne & Australian comedy scenes! And she's got serious problems. And her comedy is SERIOUSLY funny in part because of them. Let’s call her a young, Australian country town, Maria Bamford. From severe OCD and wanting to F*** a dog, to adult-onset Tourette’s, to physically abusive and emotionally neglectful parents, a brain bleed,...

Nicky Barry is a much loved (and crusher) comedian from the Melbourne comedy scene and she has LIVED A LIFE. She's also opened for a bunch of big names and headlined all over Australia and if you get a chance to see her live you should absolutely do so. She very generously talked to me about the end of her 30 year marriage, the experience of her alcoholic father binging so hard he acquired a brain...

Ivan Aristeguieta is not only a hilarious comedian originally from Venezuela and now a big dog of the Australian comedy industry - he's also an incredibly open and lovely man who has been through WAY more than you night think. Whether the trauma has made him a deep thinker, or being a deep thinker has enabled him to better process it, he's very thoughtful and articulate in this interview. We talk...

Hoani Hotene is a lovely, lovely boy from NZ. Sat down to interview him at The Classic Comedy Club in Auckland a few weeks ago and he was incredibly insecure about not having 'enough' trauma or proper 'struggles' but we finally managed to find some damage to talk about coz he did once get a very severe concussion. Fun chat! We talked about his growing up Maori while presenting 'white', his comedy...

I first met Ari over a decade ago when he was visiting Perth, Western Australia and to my naive Australian eyes he seemed like a long-professional pro. He's since earned those stripes, however - doing much of what one can do in a comedy career. He's now less beholden to an imagined "making it" of comedy, and now trying to work out what a meaningful & happy life might look like (while flying al...

The somehow optimistic and joyful Tilahun Hailu, having been performing as Joe White for just over a decade, is finally ready to embrace his birth name onstage. Born in a Sudanese refugee camp, and with an alcoholic abusive father who was driven off when Tilahun was 6 years old, who after that lived on the streets of Khartoum with his 5 siblings and single mother, who needed to be tied together at...

NZ Comedy Wildman David Correos (Taskmaster NZ), talks about being too ADHD to get diagnosed, getting detained by US Customs & Immigration, breaking his ankle training as an Olympic Weightlifter, contracting gout, bombing with dignity, and being riddled with insecurity, which has driven most of what he has applied himself to in life. We also have a BIG OLD chat about how comedy and the industr...

Excellent comedian and lovely person Katharyn Henson (Stories From The Office Of A Sex Dungeon) talks about being a teenage meth head (supplied by her friend's dad), a father abandoning her (and other children), working at a sex dungeon, refusing to steal despite many positive examples, her marriage and somewhat secret divorce (that is still technically not final at the time of recording), her upc...

The internationally touring Melbourne comedian David Rose talks to Jez about being born deaf in one ear, how his family fled the holocaust, depression, therapy & medication, becoming humanised with age and love, reconnecting with his Jewish roots, and marrying a 'full blown Jew'. He has shows on sale in Adelaide & Melbourne find tickets at www.davidrosecomedy.com. Watch my special WHITE-RI...

Singaporean comedian Collin Christopher See talks to Jez about being committed twice in Canada during schizophrenic breaks, how the Singapore scene reacted to Jocelyn Chia's cancellation, his time in the armed forces, depression, an unloving family, drugs, getting mentally and physically healthy, journalling, and bombing corporates. Follow him on instagram at www.instagram.com/collinchris and watc...

Singaporean Comedian/Actor Jacky Ng (Big Dog in Singapore) talks to Jez about a failed tour in Thailand, audience & cultural differences across Singapore, SE Asia, Perth & Melbourne, government regulation of standup, getting married + buying an HDB, a torn ACL that let him pursue standup comedy, a distant family, national service in the military, his first album "Work Harder", and how to m...

Comedian Aidan Jones (Amazon Prime, Chopin's Nocturne) talks to Jez about his sobriety, growing through therapy, successes and setbacks in comedy, the complicated history of an absent biological father, and moving to the UK. He's touring through the UK, mainland Europe and I'm sure other places so go to his website aidanjonescomedy.com to find out where. Head to jezwatts.com to watch his full spec...

Comedian He Huang (Australia's Got Talent viral clip, Just For Laughs) allows Jez to use her notoriety for his debut episode. He Huang talks about her overwhelming urge to be "chasing" something, parents that don't love each other, crying on stage, angry parents making an angry child, misogyny in right-wing countries, the meaning of life and being "a migrating bird who wants to be a tree". She's t...