Meet Ben Stevenson – stand-up comedian and radio host

If there’s one thing stand-up comedy has taught Ben Stevenson, it’s that he’s not an alien. The world is a weird place that doesn’t always make sense – but if you have the courage to go on stage and ask questions, chances are you’ll find common ground. 

 

Let’s start at the beginning – where did your knack for comedy come from? 

I owe a lot of my sense of humour to my parents – that’s definitely where it started. I think I was always able to make my friends laugh, and I was certainly the class clown in that I could never pay attention for a whole lesson. But I was also quite a shy kid. I remember preparing for an oral presentation and I was doing backflips for weeks. I was never really a big fan of the spotlight. But I always knew I wanted to share my ideas with people, I just didn’t know how. Mum and dad raised me to never take things at face value, to ask questions and to develop critical thought. They also taught me the value of art. They actually met doing theatre; dad was a writer and musician and mum was a film editor. 

But before comedy, came radio. How did that part of your career begin? 

When I left school I didn’t really know what I wanted to do – I just knew I wanted to do something creative. So I got some odd jobs, earned a bit of money and ended up doing a lot of overnight jobs in factories and warehouses. It was there I started listening to graveyard radio. Some of the weird, goofy stuff the presenters were doing sounded like so much fun – more fun than what I was doing at the time. And I just realised, even if I’m not any good at it, I’ve got to find out if I’ve got what it takes. So I ended up going back to school to study radio. I started out at TAFE in Melbourne, then I did a university course in live radio broadcasting. 

So how did you land your first gig? 

My tutors were all pretty connected in the industry and my TAFE teacher at the time had a weekly show called ‘Off The Record’ on Triple R. He needed a panel operator, which is someone to push the buttons. I had no idea how to operate a panel but I thought, stuff it, and put my hand up. So every week I’d rock up and get to watch him interview some incredible names in music, even members of The Rolling Stones. From there, as I was finishing that uni course, the NOVA program director came in for a chat and mentioned they needed panel operators too. So I put my hand up again, and that’s how I got my foot in the door at NOVA. 

From panel operator to radio host – how did that happen? 

One day, the same program director came around and said all the graveyard announcers are sick. There was literally no one else who could do it so he asked if I wanted to have a go. I kinda shit myself, but that night, just a couple of hours later, I was presenting to the entire country. It was nerve-wracking, but I did okay – so when a permanent spot on the overnight roster came up, I managed to snap that up for the next year. I do think the graveyard shift was a good way to ease into radio. When I was doing the panel for somebody on a normal day shift, everyone in the office would be tuning into their show and listening. So if something stuffs up, all the people you work with and have to face every day are listening. But with the graveyard shift, they’re not there – you can make mistakes, flub your words, and take the entire network off air (which I’ve done once or twice), so it’s a bit more forgiving. And you get weird people calling in, which was really fun – it’s a good way to hone the craft. 

When did you make the move to Coffs Harbour? 

Before my beach move, I actually headed north to Darwin where they needed an announcer. There were only three of us running the whole station for a short period of time. Radio is an industry where it’s all hands on deck. Your role might be doing one thing, but you end up doing a bunch of other jobs as well. So it was really great to work in a radio station where you got to do a bit of everything. But after almost five years I’d had enough of the 32-degree, 100 per cent humidity days. I found out the Breakfast Show host in Coffs Harbour was planning to leave, so I applied and managed to score that role. These days I do a later show, which I’m very thankful for. I don’t know if my body or my mind could take the 4am starts now. 

So you’re now an experienced radio host – but when was your first time on the stand-up stage? 

The year was 2012, and I remember it vividly. I honestly thought I was going to die – or at least pass out and fall to the floor. It was an open mic night in Melbourne. I got signed up and had five to six weeks to come up with stuff. I was absolutely terrified. I think most people are when they start out because you think if they don’t laugh, it’s game over. But you will have plenty of other opportunities to get that laugh, just don’t put the pressure on. I had a lovely MC too who informed the audience it was my first time. Once people know that, they want you to have a good time even if you’re terrible, so they’ll laugh at anything really. But I think I managed to get a few honest laughs – I did two-and-a-half minutes of a five-minute set. It was enough for me to know I wanted to do more. 

Fast forward to today – what kind of material do you do? 

I tell a lot of personal stories and stuff that I can’t make sense of in the world. It’s really nice to have a stage where I can talk about that kind of thing and find common ground. When everyone laughs, we find that connection point and I realise I’m not an alien. I feel really good on the stage these days. My nerves are still pretty high beforehand, but once I’m out there I feel really comfortable. I don’t panic, I don’t go over my notes and I don’t need to rehearse so much. I can be present in that moment, engage with the audience and roll with whatever happens on the night. It’s an entirely different feeling to my first time doing stand-up. But I’m so happy that I actually conquered that fear, because it’s not really that bad and it works in parallel with radio – it’s great to flex different creative muscles. 

And finally, what do you love most about stand-up? 

I love that it offers so much freedom. There really isn’t any one way to go about it. You can throw all the structure out the window and talk about anything you like. The only requirement is to make it funny. 

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