Another great talent who should be on radio

Following on from my article about Natasha Exelby being axed from Wake Up and how she would be a great fit for breakfast radio (here) there’s another strong new talent yet to secure a role on radio. His name is Joel Creasey.

Joel is from Western Australia and emerged from the Melbourne Comedy festival a couple of years ago. This year he appeared on A League of Their Own with host Tommy Little, who will be doing Nova 100 breakfast next year. Creasey did a stand out job, although it appears the show won’t be returning to Ten in 2014.

Joel is one of the new breed of comics emerging, in fact he’s not emerging he is already here. He’s been doing stand up comedy since he was 16 – and even now at only 22 years of age he has years of live stand up and television appearances under his belt.

His appearances at this years Melbourne Comedy festival were hailed as brilliant – the Melbourne Age newspaper described him as ‘a revelation’.  He’s also been described as a younger Aussie version of the UK’s Graham Norton – eloquent, polished and fabulously funny.

Being very much a part of the ‘social media generation’, Joel’s following has already gathered him over 6,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. He follows in the footsteps of the ‘royalty’ of stand up comedy – Tony Martin, Mick Molloy, Dave Hughes and Wendy Harmer – who all went on to have extraordinary, successful, long careers on radio.

Joel Creasey is somewhere between a young Leonardo Di Caprio in looks (very marketable) with the angst of Fifi Box and the wit and lightning speed of Wil Anderson.

His life has been described as 'like a broadway show’ – which makes for great content. I’m sure that as well as being in demand for live comedy he would also be considered for plenty of television work and other roles. Joel would fit well on any of the Nova, Today Network, or Mix (Kiis) stations, with his irreverent brand of humour and the telling of his everyday life occurrences and stories. 

Of course, for success he would need great direction and coaching on a daily basis from a strong, experienced EP and CD to realise his full radio potential. A daily show would test him, as it has other comedians – coming up with content everyday which was talked about in The Brutal Truth series.

Joel started out on the streets as a Casanova on Nova 93.7 Perth. Early this year he made some ‘appearances’ on 92.9 in his hometown with Lisa, Paul and Baz, and also on late nights. His ‘campness’ and sense of fun would surely be a welcome relief for listeners who, on the whole, live comparatively straightforward lives (compared to people in radio). Creasey is made for Gen Y listeners and the Gen Y’s are now in the all important 25-34 demographic.

Managing Director of Perth's Nova 93.7, Gary Roberts (left), said Joel had “immediate impact and is genuinely funny" and thought "he had potential to be one of Australia's greatest comedians."

Managed by Andrew Taylor, this is one comic we will hear a lot more of, hopefully on radio. Up until now, openly gay comedians and radio talent have generally tended to play side roles or anchor roles on commercial radio, rather than the lead roles on breakfast and drive shows. Examples include people like Adam Richard, Troy Ellis and Jamie Row. One exception is Nathan Morris (right) on Nova breakfast in Perth – perhaps the West Coast is more progressive than the East?

Joel certainly has the talent. He’s different and that’s what radio needs. He has the courage to be himself on air and that’s no mean feat. And, while he can be flamboyant, you can also tell he’s genuine. He’s someone who cuts through and stands out from the pack. Joel is unique and very likeable, and I’m sure we will hear him on radio somewhere soon. He’s a stand out.

** And it should be noted that Tom Ballard, who has just signed off after 7 years on triple j breakfast achieved enormous success. A major talent, Tom has had high ratings including a number 1 in Perth this year. This piece was written with commercial radio in mind.

Brad March is a former CEO of the Austereo Network and is Managing Director of Marchmedia.