Dave Hughes

David William "Hughesy" Hughes (born 26 November 1970) is an Australian stand-up comedian, radio and television presenter. He is represented by Token Artists.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Dave Hughes is the son of Des and Carmel Hughes. Born and raised in the regional town of Warrnambool, Victoria, Hughes has said that he drank heavily as a teenager and young adult, often "getting locked up, you know, not for being violent but I just used to fall asleep on the road and stuff, you know."^[1] He has since become a teetotaler.

He moved to Perth, Western Australia in the early 1990s, where he got his start in stand-up comedy, while working casually as a labourer. During this time he developed his style of ad-lib performance, often making jokes about downbeat, self-deprecating, embarrassing or socially awkward subjects, such as life on the dole and losing his virginity at a brothel.^{[citation needed]} This approach proved to be reasonably successful with Perth's relatively small comedy audiences, and Hughes moved to Australia's "comedy capital" of Melbourne, in the mid-1990s, where his career took off.

During the summer of 1990 Dave was seen on Beadle's About and The Best of Beadle's About.^{[citation needed]}

Comedian

Hughes is a comedian on Before the Game an AFL show on Saturday nights and late night SBS. Hughes co-hosted the ABC comedy talk show The Glass House along with Wil Anderson and Corinne Grant. It was axed in 2006 amid political controversy.^[2] He is recognisable for his larrikin personality, drawling Australian accent and deadpan comedic delivery. His catch cry gig-starter is variations on "Seriously" or "You know what, guys? I'm not happy tonight... " or "I'm angry tonight..." or occasionally, the surprising "I'm happy tonight...".^{[citation needed]}

Since 2001, Hughes has co-hosted the breakfast shift from 6am to 9am on Melbourne's Nova 100 breakfast program on weekdays, "Hughesy & Kate", with Kate Langbroek. He is a regular performer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

In the past, he has worked on national radio station Triple M, and had guest spots on television programs The Fat, Rove Live, The Panel, and Thank God You're Here. Some of his performances have been recorded for CD, such as Dave Hughes Whatever and DVD "Dave Hughes Live".^[3] In the AFL season he is a part of the Network Ten Saturday night show Before The Game alongside Peter Helliar. Hughes has also appeared in a series of television commercials for Australian car manufacturer Holden.

During the 2007 Logie Awards, which he co-hosted with Adam Hills and Fifi Box, Hughes referred to radio shock-jock Kyle Sandilands as a "massive dickhead" to applause and laughter from the audience. Later that year, Sandilands - being interviewed on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton - said he "hates Dave Hughes" and that "If I saw him I would punch him in the throat".^[4] Hughes retorted by releasing an official apology, which said in part that Hughes was "sincerely and deeply sorry that Kyle Sandilands is a massive dickhead" and "Massive dickheads have the same rights as normal people".^[5]

Hughes worked on Australian television show Rove in 2007, with a weekly "Hughesy Loses It" segment. In 2008-2009 the segment evolved into another segment on Rove, known as 'Help me Hughesy' where he would rant about topic that he needed to express to the viewers of the show most weeks.^[6] On July 20 Dave started co-hosting the Channel 10 show 'The 7PM Project', alongside TV personalities Ruby Rose, Charlie Pickering, and Carrie Bickmore.

Personal life

Hughes is a supporter of the Carlton Football Club.^[7] He has stated in an interview in the Weekend Australian Magazine, that three things make him happy, "The audience laughing at my jokes, Carlton winning the footy and my wife, Holly, smiling."

Hughes married Holly Ife, a reporter for Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, on 31 December 2006 at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne. They have a cat Teddy and a dog Barkly, adopted from Save-A-Dog in Glen Iris[1]. They welcomed their first child, son Rafferty David Hughes, on April 24, 2009.[2]

He also owns the nightclub Fix, Docklands in Melbourne with Chris Tarrant and Nick Daffy.^[8] In recent years, he has been a vocal opponent of development of the Triangle Site in St Kilda^[9]

External links

• Dave Hughes at the Internet Movie Database
• Dave Hughes' bio on the Token Artists site
• Dave Hughes' bio on the Glasshouse's ABC site
• Dave Hughes' bio on the MOSH site
• Nova 100 - Hughesy & Kate website
• Enough Rope With Andrew Denton, Screened: 20 September 2004, "Dave Hughes" (transcript of interview)

References