Pop and Passion: Side B: Vinyl Revival

Dave O'Neil has been a fixture of Australian comedy for more than 20 years including appearances on Spicks and Specks and Randling.

Dave is a regular on ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks and has appeared on Channel 10’s The Panel, Rove Live and Channel 10’s Comedy Festival Gala. In 2012 he appeared in Adam Hill’s Gordon St Tonight and made it to the Grand Final of Andrew Denton’s show Randling.

In 2013 dave appears in Adam Zwar’s The Agony of Life on the ABC. He is also making his debut as a team captain on the new ABC TV nostalgia show Tractor Monkeys.

In 2010 Dave co-hosted the Classic Rock 91.5fm breakfast show with Dicko. Previously he performed with Chrissie Swan, and comedians Shaun Micallef and Denise Scott. He was also the Dave in NOVA’s ‘Hughsey, Kate and Dave’. He is currently heard doing fill-ins on ABC 774.

As well as writing and performing shows in eleven Melbourne Comedy Festivals Dave has appeared at the Comedy Club, Last Laugh, the Comedy Store in Sydney and the Sit Down Comedy club in Brisbane.

Dave had a lead role alongside Eric Bana and Stephen Curry in Bill Bennett’s feature film The Nugget and in Takeaway, a full-length comedy feature co-written, co-produced and starring Dave in a cameo as Mal the Butcher. Dave also co-wrote and played Akela the Scout Leader in the feature film You and Your Stupid Mate which was released in 2005. He has also written for many TV shows including Full Frontal, Jimeoin and Micallef.

Dave’s first book Unfit For Life was published by Lothian books and Dave has also released two children’s books Raised by Frank and Lies Your Parents Tell You. In 2007 he released his latest book Everything Tastes Better Crumbed – and other BIG statements from Dave O’Neil.

At this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival Justin Hamilton performs his stand-up routine Idiot Man Child.

Justin Hamilton is a stand-up comedian who’s toured Australia as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow from 2002 to 2008.

Justin has appeared as a guest on Rove, The Glass House and Good News Week, and he was a Triple M weekend breakfast host from 2007-2009.

Lawrence Mooney is a stand up comedian with 18 years of experience.

Last year he was awarded Best Comedy at the Melbourne Fringe and the Crikey Best of The Fest at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He is currently appearing on Agony Uncles on ABC1.

Lawrence has also been taking on less comic roles in the past year, including in Winners and Losers on the Seven Network and Conspiracy 365 on Movie One.

Nelly Thomas has been described as one of Australia’s most natural comedians. An award-winning performer, she was listed as one of Australia’s 'most innovative thinkers' in the Age's The Zone and was featured on the ABC’s Big Ideas: The Smartest Stuff on TV, Radio and Online. 

Nelly is a regular guest on ABC Local Radio and Radio National and writes extensively in the print and online media, including as a columnist for New Matilda. 

She has published a memoir, What Women Want (Random House, 2012) and has just released her first children’s book Some Girls (Piccolo Nero, 2018). Some Girls is an early childhood book aimed at fulfilling one of Nelly’s life-long passions – instilling confidence in little girls through challenging gender and other stereotypes. An accompanying book for boys is due out in mid-2018.

Nelly has been a stand-up comedian for 16 years. She stumbled into comedy after winning the Triple J Raw Comedy competition in 2003. Since then she’s done all the things comedians normally do – toured Australia and overseas, established a Melbourne Comedy room and performed at hundreds of gigs and a couple of dozen festivals. She’s also directed shows by some incredible comedians including Maria Bamford, Candy Bowers and Stella Young.

But alongside her normal comedy work, Nelly has forged a specialist career in comedic health promotion and is highly sought after as a health promotion speaker and MC. It is here that she can combine her comedic and communication skills with her passion for health and well-being; as understood in a whole-of-society context. 

In 2016 Nelly was very proud to be named an Ambassador for Jean Hailes for Women’s Health – Australia’s leading women’s health organisation.

Nelly lives in Melbourne with her partner Lachlan, their two daughters, a grumpy poodle, a stupid labradoodle and one very resilient goldfish. She is a devotee of terrible reality television and was once an under-13s Girl’s BMX Champion.