Dave Hughes

David William "Hughesy" Hughes (born 26 November 1970) is an Australian stand-up comedian, radio and television presenter.

Early life

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." 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. 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.

Comedian

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. 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...".

He took this angry persona onto Australian television show Rove in 2007, with a weekly "Hughesy Loses It" segment. In 2008, this has evolved to a weekly agony aunt segment, "Help Me Hughesy".

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, and his performances are regularly sold out.

In the past, he has worked on national radio station Triple Moccassin, and had guest spots on television programs The Fat, Rove Live, The Panel, Thank God You're Here and others. Some of his performances have been recorded for CD, such as Dave Hughes Whatever and DVD "Dave Hughes Live". 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.

He is represented by Token Artists.

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". 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".

Personal life

Hughes is a supporter of the Carlton Football Club. 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 are expecting their first child in May 2009.

He also owns the nightclub Fix, Docklands in Melbourne with Chris Tarrant and Nick Daffy.

In recent years, he has been a vocal opponent of development of the Triangle Site in St Kilda

He was made an "Honourary Muslim" by the Australian Islamic comedy panel-program, Salam Cafe, and given the name Dawood, the Arabic form of David. This was due to the similarities between Dave Hughes life and the image of a stereotypical Australian Muslim. The reasons listed by Waleed Aly, one of the panelists, were that Dave doesn't drink, is a vegetarian (i.e., doesn't eat pork), that he is a big fan of "hotted up cars", he worked in an abattoir, he kept getting fired from every job he's ever had and before that spent many years on the dole. Dave replied that he was quite happy about this, and that they could have many great parties together.

External links

• Dave Hughes at IMDb
• 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)