Tom Ballard: Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred

Tom Ballard has travelled extensively around his native Australia, where it would seem you can be equally surprised by the presence of homophobia as by its unexpected absence. Seven years after coming out to his parents, Ballard has found himself in the unusual position of not only being out to the people he knows but also, due to his rising comedy profile on television back home, out to completely strangers. Like taxi drivers.

Ballard gives the impression of being a laid-back unofficial ambassador for LGBTQ affairs. But the iron undercurrent to his slick stories are glimpses of a world "not set up for you". He describes his coming out to his family in small town Australia, and the subsequent adventures, with energetic charm, but also carefully tempered outrage at the international state of homophobia. He informs as well as entertain us, with happily neither suffering at the expense of the other.

There's a vulnerability to his famous profile – supposedly safe cab rides home can be unexpectedly marked by open hostility. But there are also left field delights hidden in unexpected places. Ballard plays his craft well, eliciting laughs while surreptitiously describing his own journey towards "pride".