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About Peter Helliar
When Aussie’s want a comedian that looks like Phillip Seymour-Hoffman they turn to Peter Helliar. Melbourne based comedian, writer, director, broadcaster and presenter Peter Helliar has worked as a stand up for decades , touring to sold-out houses in Australia and New Zealand as well hosting his own radio shows for Triple M and 2Day-FM.
Comedian Peter Helliar came to the nation’s attention in 1999 as a cast member of Rove, the Logie Award winning variety show hosted by Rove Mcmanus that enjoyed ten historic years on Australian TV. In 2016 Peter Hellair toured Australia and New Zealand with his show One Hot Mess, performing at the Opera House as part of Just for Laughs Sydney and culminated in recording the show as a stand-up special for Channel Ten. Elsewhere on screen he’s featured in the Warner Bros animated movie Storks, voicing a character alongside Andy Samberg, Jennifer Anniston and Kelsey Grammer and has recently completed filming a TV show he has developed and starred in for Network TEN – How To Stay Married.
And there’s no slowing down for Peter Helliar. As well as continuing to host the multi-awarding winning current affairs show The Project, Peter’s latest stand up show Big Boy Pants has been touring across Australia and major comedy festivals, with the comedian garnering praise as “one of the most reliable, hardworking and consistently hilarious figures on the Australian comedy scene”
WATCH PETER HELLIAR’S ONE HOT MESS
One Hot Mess covers family, sex and pilates to technology in our rapidly changing world, with subjects under further scrutiny ranging from masturbation to religion, and everything in between. Expect tight gags and terrific observations from a true Aussie pro.
Reviews and Awards
For his work on current affairs show The Project,Peter Helliar was nominated for the most prestigious prize in Australian entertainment, the Gold Logie for Best Personality on Australian Television. He was also named Comedian of the Year in GQ Magazine “Men of the Year” Awards 2007.
‘Give Peter Helliar a stage, a microphone, some bright lights and a captive audience and he shows why he is one of the nation’s favourite comedians’
Sunday Mail
‘Wonderful… a bizarre revelation’
The Age, Melbourne
‘Helliar has a keen observational eye for the topical’
Herald-Sun
‘Peter Helliar makes the difficult business of being funny look dead easy’
Adelaide Advertiser
Peter Helliar Tickets
The latest news on Peter Helliar’s live gigs and upcoming shows can be found here.
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Biography
Peter Jason Matthew Helliar born in 1975, tells Stand and Deliver of the first moment when he glimpsed the inspirational power of live comedy – “I saw Greg Fleet at the Comedy Club in Melbourne when I was 15 and I thought that that would be a kind of cool thing to do…That, of course, was when I thought everyone was making huge amounts of money doing comedy….It took me a good seven years to get off to it,” he admits. Opting for travel after finishing school, Peter started out as door to door salesman selling Blockbuster like video cards before getting a job with a telecommunications company, spending his days cold calling and dreaming of something greater.
His first gig was in 1996 in Melbourne when he was offered a 5 minute slot as part of a comedy night line up. At the age of 21, wearing a dinner suit to set himself apart from the crowd, Peter Helliar remembers vividly a struggle to get the mic out of the stand in front of a 200 person strong audience, and making a split decision to open with a fish and chip shop joke. It went down pretty well and he got the bug for live comedy there and then. But watching the old VHS taping of that first gig, Peter Helliar revealed to The Weekend Edition – “Most people die when they do their first one – even though I did okay, I still wanted to reach through the screen and give myself a hug and say “it’s okay, it ends up alright”. I was on stage holding an empty water bottle and I didn’t put it down. Now usually there’s a beer on stage – because, well, if you can drink at work, why not?”.
So does he remember when he first discovered a knack for making people laugh? He explains, “It came in waves for me – I didn’t have an absolute epiphany as such. Through school I guess I really enjoyed making people laugh – I’d make productions and cast them and direct them. In year ten I just wrote a bunch of sketches and I got some mates to help me out at lunch time – and the kids would come and see them. So I guess there were a few hints and clues early on that I was able to make people laugh, and that’s how it all began really…I used to go to a local football club where there would be comedy night… and that was probably one of the first times I thought that maybe I could be a stand-up comedian. I would watch those guys and think what a great way to make a living – going around and telling jokes. But then when you start doing it, you realise that yeah, there’s money to be made, but you have to work bloody hard, which I was prepared to do. Being a stand-up is what I relate to most – it’s what I consider myself.”
Helliar initially worked the Melbourne comedy circuit in the mid nineties, performing in various venues and at the annual Melbourne International Comedy Festival. But Peter Helliar’s comedy career is a hybrid beast. Unlike the many comics whose stand-up careers gave them the key to the world of TV, Helliar’s stage and screen profile developed simultaneously. While he was a relative newcomer on the Melbourne circuit, he featured in the community TV shows Under Melbourne Tonight and The Loft Live, hosted by Rove McManus. When Channel 9 grabbed McManus, Helliar went with him as his on-air sidekick and writer.
Regularly appearing on Rove and drivetime radio, Peter Hellair also became known for his alter ego Bryan Strauchan aka Strauchanie which he created for the 2005 AFL season. Debuting on the television show Before the Game, Helliar donned a blonde mullet wig to play the character of an Australian bogan with delusions of grandeur, going on to make regular comedy appearances across Austrailain media (mostly in situations that highlighted Strauchanie’s weight, lack of fitness and general ineptitude in life).
After performing in the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, comedian Peter Helliar took a break from stand-up to make a feature film, before returning to the stage in 2009 at the Sydney Opera House with his Dreamboat Tour. Then in 2010 his first feature film as a writer, I Love You Too, was released. Continuing to work on screen in The Project and writing the comedy drama ABC’s It’s a Date, Helliar still found time for a new stand-up show, Totes Grouseballs inspired by the everyday stuff of life. He told the Sunday Herald “Everything I talk about has actually happened to me…I had a close call with a sex-tape scandal…It wasn’t actually a tape, it was photo of a bit of fun I was having with my wife. But it nearly turned viral on me.”
2012 saw Peter return to the comedy festival stage with another stand up show, Snazzy, which was also broadcast on ABC TV and released as a DVD as part of the Warehouse Comedy Festival series. And in 2013 he was back on stage again at the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festival with his new show Whatevs (….Foreves).
In 2013, Peter Helliar was invited to be a part of the prestigious Just For Laughs Sydney Festival, hosting a series of shows called Date Night at the Sydney Opera House, as well as appearing on stage at the JFL International Comedy Gala, hosted by his good mate Rove McManus.
As a regular fill in host on The Project in 2013, Peter made the transition to full time co-host in 2014. And Peter Helliar still continues to make the stage is natural home. His 2016 comedy special One Hot Mess has been praised across the board as “effortlessly inclusive…Helliar plays the affable everyman brilliantly”
And now, ‘best-selling children’s author’ has also been added to his impressive list of credits, with his self penned kids book Frankie Fish. The third book in the series was released in October 2018.
Get More Peter Helliar
Want more of Peter Helliar? You’re in luck – his full stand-up comedy special is available to watch on NextUp – a digital comedy club where you can stream instantly over 120 comedy specials from some of the exciting names in comedy. Oh, and there’s a 7 day free trial.