It’s been an incredible few years since graduating from Stones Corner open-mic nights to co-hosting triple j’s breakfast show and selling out comedy venues around the country. How’s life now you can afford the fancy bread?
It’s heaps better, I’m not going to lie. Anyone who says money doesn’t buy happiness has obviously never worn a snuggy made out of $50 notes.

Has it changed you as a person?
My eating habits have changed dramatically, I think on the weekend I had some bay leaf and olive oil-flavoured ice-cream. When that’s the sort of ice-cream you’re eating you know that things are going to be alright.

You’ve been doing breakfast radio for a while now, have you gotten used to the early mornings?
No! You never get used to them. You never get used to being out past 8:00 pm and freaking out. You try to have a good time but as soon as it hits 8:00 pm you just turn into the annoying person that wants to go home. I always ask my girlfriend if she wants to go to bed and it’s like 7:30 pm.

You also tour pretty relentlessly doing your stand-up comedy shows around the country. Do you hate sleep?
Ha! Stand-up is what I do for fun, I love it! It’s the best hobby in the world because I get to go to all of these incredible places and manage to make money from it. I’ll be on holidays from triple j when I start this tour so believe it or not this is what I am deciding to do for fun. As if I wouldn’t want to, I get to come up and stay in Burleigh for a couple of days. I’m going to go to Rick Shores, which I’ve heard so many good things about, I’m super excited.

We love Rick Shores! There are so many amazing places to eat and drink on the coast now.  
Yeah I’m totally into it! I love some of the smaller bars that are opening up. I look forward to seeing what’s been happening recently. I can’t wait, seriously it makes me so excited.

Where do you find inspiration for your stand-up shows?
That’s a funny one, it kind of just happens. I have a little notepad in my phone and anytime I see something ridiculous I write it down but most of the time it’s just me doing something stupid. I was at a fresh food market the other day and I felt like there was a baby that was trying to put its hand on my foot, I didn’t know what was going on underneath the table and when I pulled my foot out from underneath the table, there was just this rat on it. I just opened up the memo and wrote ‘rat on foot in market’, whether it turns into a joke who knows but that’s the general starting point for all of my material.

Wow, that sounds awful! Did you still buy the vegetables?
I did. I don’t know what that says about me as a person.

You often cop a fair bit of flack from the listeners when you get the day wrong (an easy mistake to make, let’s be honest). How do you deal with the haters?
You don’t want everyone to like you because that just means that you’re bland. You have to piss some people off and generally the people that I piss off, I wouldn’t want to hang out with anyway. If I had a group of friends and they called me an effing idiot for getting the day wrong I wouldn’t want to hang out with them anyway so why would I care about them on the text line? I just think it’s funny now. Sometimes I’ll do things on purpose just to annoy them.

Take us back to your first gig, what was running through your mind when you stepped on stage?
I entered Raw Comedy when I was drunk and I didn’t hear back about it for like two months so I just thought I’m off the hook and then like three days before the gig I got a call from the Sit Down Comedy Club in Brisbane telling me to have a set ready. I remember sitting on the couch at my dad’s place with the phone in my hand, I was going to call in sick and just pretend I couldn’t make it. I managed to muster up the courage thanks to a few beers and then I ended up winning the heat so it was awesome! As soon as you get the very first laugh you realise you’re not delusional and what you’re saying is actually funny. I’ve since gone on to do some absolutely stinking gigs but my first one wasn’t one of them.

What was the stinkiest gig you can remember?
I did Christmas parties back in the day and this one time I was asked to do my show while people were lining up at the buffet. You’re literally just standing next to a steaming hot bain-marie while people have their plates in their hands and are more concerned about whether there will be any chicken left. There’s nothing more degrading than performing next to a buffet.

You famously spoke out about the lack of support for women in the Australian music industry in your ARIA acceptance speech and have gone on to rap about the injustices of Australia Day, lock-out laws, blackface and Islamophobia, to name a few – what’s next on your social hit list?
Oh man, the talk lately of trying to water down the racial discrimination act is doing my head in. It’s really disappointing that there is a section of people in our government who are actively seeking to be more racist, that really depresses me a lot. It will be really difficult for me to keep quiet if it continues.

You’re performing a gig at The Arts Centre Gold Coast on Saturday September 17. What will be on the agenda for the evening?
I might see how I feel on the day but I will dishing out some good advice. My number one piece of advice is don’t do any Ja Rule impressions while getting freaky in the bedroom, it does not help the situation at all. To Ja Rule impersonations in the bedroom, Australia says no.

Definitely words to live by. Do you have any others?
My favourite line in a Lil Wayne song is “real g’s move in silence like lasagne”, I kind of try to live by that mantra.

What has been your proudest achievement so far?
I recently put out a song that I am really excited about because that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It’s a big step for me because I do comedy and I am an idiot on the radio every morning but I have a very serious focus on music that I want to commit to moving forward. That’s something I’m proud of. I’ve also won a bunch of awards doing shows, being nominated for the Best Newcomer award in Edinburgh in 2013 was really when things kicked off for me in a big way. Oh and the ARIA is pretty cool. As an award, it’s terrifying though – it’s sharp and very heavy. I actually have these visions of me slipping over in my room at 4:30 in the morning and impaling myself on my own greatness.

Is music a path you’d be keen to pursue full-time in the future?
I don’t think I could ever want to do anything full-time because I don’t think I could just stop everything else to focus on just one thing. I really like being able to jump from thing to thing, it gives me a sense of difference but in terms of taking it seriously, 100 percent. Once I peel my ass off this leather couch maybe I’ll be able to get back into work.