Episode 38: Writing for Comedy with James Colley

In this podcast, we bring you Caspar's conversation with 27 year old comedy writer, satirist and podcaster James Colley. James is a standup comedian, a writer on several well-known Australian comedy TV shows including 'Tonightly', 'Gruen', and 'The Weekly with Charlie Pickering'. He co-hosts the podcast 'Stop the Posts' and is creator of the podcast 'Nailed It'. He is the author of "Too Right: Politically incorrect opinions too dangerous to be published except that they were" and co-authored the recent sports memoir "Tries, lies and meat pies: The Sam Thaiday Story".

James talks to us about his journey from starting out by training in from the blue mountains for 5 mins of open mic stand up when he was 15, his choice to study physics at Sydney University, and to discovering political comedy and eventually writing for some of the country's most well-known comedians. He explains why he is more passionate about writing comedy than doing stand up, though he provides tips on how to do both. James gives us his take on comedy today, how it is being challenged when it comes to topics like freedom of speech, and the experiences he's had when getting it wrong.

Other than that, we spoke about class, the recent #libspill and what he thinks needs to change about the world and comedy. As always, this episode was produced and edited by the ever-talented Nina Roxburgh and features music by Big Gigantic.

You can follow James' work on his Twitter or Facebook page and if you live in Sydney, you can attend 'Nailed It!' live shows at Giant Dwarf Theatre.