Tom Gleeson is at his peak, he says, and his upcoming Sydney Comedy Festival show is the best he’s ever done. He is, however, far less confident in the state of our government.

“I didn’t think I could be more disillusioned, but it’s like the floors caved in and there’s just a lower level that I’m sitting in now – I’m just so depressed about the whole mashed situation,” he says.

“It’s all so volatile. I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I think the Malcolm Turnbull government is going to implode, Bill Shorten’s going to win the next election, and we’re going to be exactly where we were in 2013, in reverse – with an unpopular PM that nobody likes but we just voted in because the other guy seemed shit … I reckon we might even have a hung parliament.”

As we talk, Gleeson is busy working away on the next edition of The Weekly – Charlie Pickering’s satirical ABC program. With three episodes left in the season at our time of speaking, Gleeson is tight-lipped on what’s next, but promises “there’s quite a bit coming up”.

What definitely will feature for the rest of the season, however, is ‘Hard Chat’ – Gleeson’s weekly segment that has seen him face off with the likes of Jacqui Lambie (whom he asked: “You want to ban the burqa, do you also want to ban welders and beekeepers?”), Mia Freedman (“Do you ever click on your own clickbait and think, ‘Why am I reading this shit?’”) and self-proclaimed psychic medium John Edward (“I’ve heard that Ghost is your favourite film, can you watch it with Patrick Swayze’s afterlife DVD commentary?”).

“It’s sort of weird, I think he takes what he does very seriously,” says Gleeson of Edward, who apparently keeps the whole thing up off-air. “I’m not an idiot – I’d have to think of it as an act … The only way he can do his act is if he believed it completely. So I think he maintains his act offstage as well. He [probably] goes back to his wife and goes, ‘Gee, do you believe anyone believes this bullshit?’ But I think maybe that’s his only confidante.

“I usually try to avoid [talking to interview subjects] beforehand because then they get too comfortable – but yeah, I talk to them afterwards. They always seem to come in looking a bit nervous [laughs], and yeah, I just sit them down and I try to get into it straight away, because then it’s more tense. And I feel like with that tension in the air there’s something a bit more fun about it.”

Last time this writer saw Gleeson was at the Sydney Comedy Festival Gala in 2014. He finds galas fun, but adds: “You can’t get away from the fact that it’s a bit of dick-swinging, ’cause you’re trying to stamp your authority on the night. People walk away having their favourites, and you’re trying to be the best on the night, so there’s a bit of pressure there.

“When you’re doing a one-hour show, you can actually explore ideas and flesh them out properly and not feel like you’re in a rush. To me it’s a more, sort of a higher-quality performance.”

Though too busy for this year’s gala night, Gleeson is gearing up to give a quality performance with his headline show Great at the Enmore this weekend.

“I called the show Great, ’cause it is,” he says. “People seem to be a bit relieved that it’s a masterwork. So yeah, there’s a bit of politics, I give religion the boot, family’s in there – it’s sort of hard to describe it by topic … Apparently it’s the best show I’ve ever done. A few friends have told me that, which is nice.”

Great, Tom Gleeson‘s show, takes place as part of Sydney Comedy Festival 2016, on Saturday April 30 at Enmore Theatre.

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