Tom Gleeson Out of Touch | MICF 2026

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https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/tom-gleeson/

Date Reviewed: 09/04/2026

Tom Gleeson needs little introduction. For decades a household name in Australian comedy, he has since cemented himself as one of the country's most recognisable television personalities being the host of ABC TV’s Hard Quiz, a Gold Logie winner, five-time AACTA recipient and most recently the ringmaster of Taskmaster Australia. With a résumé like that, the man arrives at the Regent Theatre carrying some considerable expectation.

Out of Touch largely meets it. The title is not incidental. As many Australians paddle through the daily grind of a cost-of-living crisis, Gleeson presents himself as a man orbiting an entirely different atmosphere being wealthy, decorated and cheerfully unbothered. His nonchalant posture creates a jarring friction against the audience's very real anxieties. However, in his capable hands, the absurdity lands and keeps the room laughing. It is a risky premise being the celebrity projecting detachment, but Gleeson has earned enough goodwill and possesses enough self-awareness to pull it off without losing the crowd.

What distinguishes a seasoned performer from a promising one is rarely material, it is adaptability. Gleeson reads the room with the quiet confidence of someone who has played rowdy RSLs and the Sydney Opera House alike. He knows how to pivot. When he drifts into audience banter and quick-witted exchanges, the unscripted tangents end up generating some of the biggest laughs of the night. The irony at the heart of the show is not lost: a man ostensibly out of touch, actually is in fact, in complete control of every beat of the evening, steering the audience for a ride.

The show roams through childhood recollections, the peculiarities of celebrity choices, domestic life and disputes. The material is crafted to include rather than exclude and the evening concludes in classic Gleeson fashion: an interactive segment inviting the audience to call out whether his stories are true or fabricated. Shout your verdict and you get the raw answer.

Out of Touch is exactly what it claims to be and that's the joke. Intelligent, joyfully disrespectful and built on the audacity of a man who knows precisely how good he is. Gleeson doesn't ask for your sympathy, he doesn't need it. He just takes your money, takes your evening and somehow leaves you grateful for both.

Reviewed by Sandra Lee