Josh Thomas And The High Drama World Of Tidying Up

Australian comedian, actor, and writer Josh Thomas is back, touring Australia with his brand new stand-up show, Let’s Tidy Up.

In a conversation with Star Observer, Thomas, 36, explained the premise behind the stand-up show, saying, “I got these two diagnoses in the last eight years, ADHD and autism, and I’m terrible at tidying up – I know to most people, that doesn’t seem like a very dramatic premise for a show, but to me, it’s like the most high-drama, high stakes stuff that’s happening in my life.”

Thomas added, “The show is about whether I’m ever gonna get better at these things that I suck at, or whether, is anybody going to get better at the things that they suck at?”

Australian Tour Dates Out

Let’s Tidy Up was written in collaboration with Lally Katz an award-winning playwright, whose works include Goodbye Vaudeville, Charlie Mudd, and The Rabbits. 

According to Thomas, the collaboration helps to add structure, explaining, “the show is more complex, deep and emotionally complicated than my previous live shows.”

Thomas’s Let’s Tidy Up Australian tour has shows in Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Newcastle, Cairns, Perth, Melbourne, Toowoomba, Brisbane, and Adelaide, through March. 

This comes on the heels of a packed 20-date North American tour in November and December of 2023.

Talking about the Australian and North American tours, Thomas said, “I’m going to really enjoy Australia. I enjoy Australia.” 

However, he did not enjoy the travel schedule of the North American tour, adding, “In America, we did like 25 cities in five weeks, which is so many… and I don’t want to be doing that again.”

Please Like Me

Thomas’s career as a comedian started at the age of 17 after he won the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Raw Comedy competition.

In 2013, Thomas created, wrote, and starred in his first television series, Please Like Me. 

Inspired by his life, Please Like Me is an Australian Queer comedy-drama, filmed in Melbourne with the ABC. Please Like Me was nominated for an International Emmy Award, GLAAD Media Award and GALECA Dorian Award. 

Speaking about the process of making the series, as well as its success, Thomas said, “I think I was lucky. There haven’t really been people of my generation that have been given TV shows that often.”

He continued, “I don’t think I realised how big of a deal it was to have a show that was so gay. Maybe I was a bit naive because I don’t wake up every morning next to my boyfriend. I wasn’t like, ‘Ahhh!, Oh my god, there’s a dick there!’. That was just my world. It felt really normal.” 

‘People Connected With The Character’

“Getting to create our own process and how we made that show … I think ended up being kind of good. It worked out in a way that was refreshing– I mean it could have gone the other way. Let’s be honest, but we got lucky.”

Thomas added, “A lot of what makes shows that we enjoy watching, good is that the cast and crew are having a good time, they’re having a nice day. We were having fun.” 

One of his worries, while acting as the lead in the show, was whether the audience would understand his character. 

He shared, “I was not really sure if people were going to connect with my character. If the character is weird, the character is me. But lots of people connected with it, and that made me feel a lot more normal, which I guess is nice.”

In 2020, Thomas wrote and starred in the comedy series, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. “My number one emotional response to that show… Well, no one died,” Thomas joked.  

He continued, “I really loved doing that show. It’s another show where I kind of got to do what I want. I wanted to tell this story about autistic teens, which is not the most straightforward stories to tell.” 

When asked what people are most surprised to learn about him, Thomas quipped, “nothing.”

“When anyone meets me, they’re always like, ‘Oh, you’re like exactly the same.’ and I’m like, ‘yeah, yeah I am’. I only got one personality.”

Maybe they think I’m going to be less shy. Maybe people would be surprised how shy I am. Because when you’re on stage, you don’t seem that shy, typically. 

Please Like Me is available on Apple TV.  Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is available on Stan.

For more information on Let’s Tidy Up, visit joshthomas.com.au