Perth Comedy Festival audiences get set for Tom Allen’s new show Completely at The Regal Theatre

Tom Allen’s refined English accent has proven to be both a blessing and curse throughout his life living in the Greater London town of Bromley. “Even though I realise I present as this sort of posh boy, because I’ve always had this posh voice, I’m actually not from a posh family at all,” 41-year-old Allen laughs over a Zoom chat. “I have this kind of notion of being slightly more fancy than I am and I’ve got nothing to back it up. Ever since I could talk, I’ve had this sort of posh voice. There’s a few of us, just these kind of fancy gays who are dotted around the world.” Allen might be embraced for it now, wearing many metaphorical hats in his multifaceted career as a stand-up comedian, actor, TV show host of The Apprentice: You’re Fired and author of memoirs No Shame and Too Much. But it was not the case while attending high school in the 90s, where classmates were suspicious of anything different or unusual. Years later, he now views the clarity that comes with being an outsider — seeing the world from a distant and different perspective — as a sort of superpower, which he has put to great use in his stand-up comedy. “When I left school, I wanted to be an actor, and then it turned out I was just gay,” he says. “Then someone suggested I have a go at stand-up and I thought it was such a weird thing to do because at that point, it was about the early to mid-2000s, in my experience, stand-up had been a very blokey environment. Because I was so ‘unblokey’, I kind of liked the idea and the sort of challenge of it. “I found it quite brutal. I’d turn up for these gigs, and they’d be full of drunk men on a stag party expecting a certain thing. I’d come out and start talking about my mum’s hostess trolley, and these audiences would be furious. Again, I suppose it was a repeat of what happened at school where they were like ‘Why? Why is he talking like that? I don’t understand it’.” It took more than a decade of perseverance before Allen felt more comfortable on stage, spurred by his late dad Paul’s belief that the world takes you at your own valuation. “If you kind of feel anxious or nervous about yourself, or if you have low self-esteem, sometimes the world will treat you like that, so I sort of faked it,” he chuckles. “That’s sort of when I started to be a bit more caustic and belligerent when I walked out on stage. I kind of went, ‘Well, look, you can like me or not like me. I don’t care, but we’re here, so what are we going to do?’ I do that in such a sort of abrasive way that I think audiences quite like it.” The UK comedian is returning to Perth, for the first time since supporting Sarah Millican on her 2016 Australian tour, with his show Completely at Perth Comedy Festival 2025. Having finally moved out of his parents’ home to his own house nearby, Allen says the show is about letting go from feeling like a kid of the 90s and 2000s, where he is grown up and can stand on his own two feet. “Of course, the reality is I can’t, and I still feel exactly the same,” he admits. “A lot of being a grown-up is dealing with the bins and that sort of thing, isn’t it? When you’re younger, you think “I’m going to get my own place and have parties, it’s going to be great’ and then when you get older and you get your own place, it’s all about repainting that window frame before the bad weather comes in . . . I’ve learnt to get quite excited about good guttering. “I like being in my 40s though, because the thing about being a grown-up is you don’t care. You don’t go to the parties that you don’t want to go to as much, and you don’t feel ashamed about going ‘I just want to stay in’. In my 20s I was like ‘No, I’ve got to go out. I’m cool.’ Now I’m like, ‘I just want to watch Miss Marple and fall asleep’. Basically, I live the life of an 85-year-old woman, and I don’t mind.” Tom Allen – Completely is at The Regal Theatre, Subiaco, April 22. Perth Comedy Festival 2025 is on from April 21 to May 18. Tickets at perthcomedyfestival.com. Another five funny people for festival laughs Geraldine Hickey – Meander Known for loving a good walk, where she can also let her mind wander, Hickey returns with a selection of her ponderings. Joel Creasey – Thanks For Being Here Perth-raised Creasey is heading home with his 15th solo show to deliver a signature hour of storytelling, complete with trademark sass. Melanie Bracewell – A Little Treat Bracewell is set to unpack the last decade of her life as she rapidly nears the end of her 20s. Nazeem Hussain – You Paid For This Using the technique of presumptive selling as his show title, Hussain promises an hour of jokes, kindly sponsored by his audience. Sara Pascoe – I Am A Strange Gloop This sleep-deprived mother has had a revelation in the middle of the night, and she is ready to share it.