Dave Hughes

On stage comedians are full of confidence, pausing only to allow the laughter it’s time to shine. Though behind the smiling faces as they talk of daily embarrassments, the need to seek laughter often comes from a much more serious place.
“It’s corny to say but comedy is a defence mechanism and I often think the most popular kids at school don’t become comedians because they don’t have to be. If everything is working out for you, you don’t really have to see the funny side of life,” Dave Hughes says.
“So you kind of draw from the attitude of not taking yourself too seriously. I’d love to visit my 7-year-old self and be like, ‘Mate, just chill out please. It’ll all be fine buddy. Stop stressing, you’ll make it.’”
For Dave, being laughed at wasn’t something he always took delight in and as a worried, sensitive child it was often a cause for stress and self-doubt.
“I remember when I used to walk around the school yard and hear people laughing I’d be like, ‘Oh god they’re laughing at me’, and I’d be mortified. Now when I hear people laughing I go, ‘Eeyyyyyyyy’. So when you have that attitude it’s fun to be laughed at,” he says.
A number of years later, having seen through the worrisome primary school years and with a new-found take on life, Dave realised that comedy was what he really wanted to do.
“I had a dream about doing comedy from the age of about 14, and I remember lying in bed one night and thinking, ‘You know I want to be a comedian’. And it was like a light bulb moment where I really knew what I wanted to do,” Dave says.
“But you don’t tell anyone that because obviously not many people get to actually be a comedian, so I certainly kept it to myself over a number of years. But it was in my mind even as I was failing a business degree and exams. God I hadn’t studied at all. I’d spent six months smoking bongs and I thought ‘I’m going to get bloody zero for this exam’. I always had it in my head that I wanted to be a comedian. So I think I would have just been 22 when I did my first gig and so I went from there.”
At his first stand-up gig, thoughts of ‘What am I doing with my life?’ and ‘I’m a failure’ circled around his mind as he tried to land a sequence of jokes. Suffice to say, his first gig was terrible. Not one to give up on the dream Dave persevered and by the third gig had found his feet.
“My third gig ever I just walked on the stage and something occurred to me that I’m just a winner for being up here. The laughter I got at that third gig was just intoxicating and it just took from that moment. And I have not stopped since,” he says.
Since that night in 1993, Dave has since taken on numerous guest spots on TV show The Project, a lengthy career as a radio presenter on KIIS FM (previously on Nova FM) alongside Kate Langbroek and this year joining the panel on The Footy Show.
While each role holds a special place in Dave’s heart, hitting the stage again for his show Pumped is where he feels he truly belongs.
“I’ve just loved getting out in comedy rooms wherever they are. Whether it’s 30 people, 100 or 1,000 I don’t care. I really do love it and I think I always will,” he says.
When & Where: GPAC, Geelong – June 13
Written by Amanda Sherring