JUSTIN HAMILTON

After twenty five-plus years in the industry, Justin Hamilton has carved out an incredibly successful career as a stand up comedian, writer and director while maintaining his unique voice within the Australian Comedy scene.

Justin started his career back in 1994 as part of the musical comedy duo The Bunta Boys. They toured Australia for the next five years and supported acts as diverse as Alexei Sayle, The Doug Anthony All-Stars, Judith Lucy, Powderfinger, Sue Anne Post and The Clowns of Decadence.

After the break-up of The Bunta Boys in 1999, Justin launched his solo act and over the course of his career has won numerous awards for his unique one-man shows. These have included the Director’s Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2007 and The Advertiser best show award at the Adelaide Fringe in 2008 for Three Colours Hammo. Justin followed up his successful 2007 with The Killing Joke which was nominated for the 2008 Melbourne Comedy Festival best show award.

In 2009 he wrote the play Goodbye Ruby Tuesday which starred actor Hannah Norris, with Justin in a supporting role. Chortle described it as a “…touching story as warm as it is witty, building delicately to a satisfyingly uplifting conclusion.” His one-man play The Goodbye Guy (2012) was also met with unanimous praise and glowing reviews.

Justin Hamilton was the producer, curator and host of the legendary Melbourne comedy variety show The Shelf which ran for 14 seasons. Alongside the fabulous Adam Richard, they hosted some of the best comedians from Australia and abroad including Wil Anderson, Hannah Gadsby, Rove McManus, Tony Martin, Glenn Robbins, Celia Pacquola, Cal Wilson, Dave Hughes, Rich Hall and Andy Zaltzman.

In 2013, Justin starred in and co-produced the Comedy Channel TV show Stand Ups Sit Down, a show he hosted with guests Wil Anderson and Rove McManus. His podcast, Can You Take This Photo Please? ran from 2010 – 2017, was listened to all over the world and saw Justin interview Simon Pegg, Marc Maron, Judith Lucy, Tony Martin and US comedian Dave Anthony.

He also produced a movie podcast with Peter Helliar entitled, Helliar and Hammo Dig Flicks! where they interviewed Steve Carrell, Joel Edgerton, Morgan Spurlock, Stephen Curry and Red Dog director Kriv Stenders.

Justin Hamilton has worked extensively in radio, most recently as a key writer for Rove’s 2DayFM breakfast show Rove & Sam. For ten years he was also the TV and movie reviewer for Perth’s number one rated breakfast show Botica’s Bunch on Mix FM, and was a regular guest on Merrick Watts’ Triple M Drive show in Sydney.

He is the head writer and regularly appears on Whovians, an ABC panel show hosted by Rove McManus that dissects and discusses the latest episodes of cult BBC show Doctor Who. He was also the head writer on the inaugural season of Network 10’s quiz show, Show me the Movie!

2019 was a big year for Justin as he won Best Show at the Adelaide Fringe for his latest one-man play, The Ballad of John Tilt Animus, which the Herald Sun described as a “…masterpiece of modern angst.” Justin was long listed by the Richell Prize for his manuscript The Ultimate and made a cameo in the Adam Goodes documentary The Australian Dream. He also launched his new podcast Big Squid toward the end of the year.

Justin still finds time to be one of Australia’s premier stand up comedians. He has made regular appearances at the Just For Laughs Sydney festival performed at The Sydney Opera House. Justin’s 2020 began with two new shows at the Adelaide Fringe where he produced a stand-up show “…And Hammo Was His Name-o” and a new John Tilt Animus play, “Time is the Fire”. He is currently producing his second season of the Big Squid podcast.