Daniel Connell does great observational comedy. He's not brash or in-your-face or overly loud. Just very, very funny talking stuff about life.
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Though the former Batemans Bay local does reckon the jokes were thin on the ground when he was working in Canberra.
He lived in Canberra for four years, starting his comedy career in the national capital, while also working for the Department of Defence.
"At South Campbell Park just sorting mail. It was a great job. Didn't get a whole lot of material from there, but the flex time was good."
Connell, 35, is now working full-time in comedy, in its heartland, Melbourne.
"I've been full-time for about three years now. I do a little bit of writing once a week for The Project on Channel Ten so that's a little bit of extra cash, but it's really a lot of travelling," he said.
"It's do-able to be a full-time comedian and not really be known Australia-wide, like a Hughesy or someone like that. There's still so much work for corporate events and parties. There's clubs all around Australia. As long as you can cut it, there's a lot of work.
"It's better to be well-known, though, then your fee can go up."
Connell is bringing his Bit of Shush show to Canberra, which also played at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival earlier this year.
"I'm in my 30s now so it's basically wanting people in my life to shut up and give me a bit of peace and quiet about kids and weddings and things such as that," he said.
"I've got a lot of stuff about other friends and their kids. And there's also sort of a through line about a documentary I saw about Elon Musk saying that we're living in a simulation and how it sort of fried my brain for a number of weeks."
But weddings will be on his agenda soon. Connell is getting married to fellow comedian Laura Dunemann next year, possibly in Batemans Bay.
"We met amongst the scene down here,'' he said.
While Connell reckons he's "trying to hold off on the really deep relationship stuff just yet" in his comedy, he hits the spot with his observatons on everything from dads at kids' sport to being pranked by teenagers.
Did he always know he was funny?
"I always liked trying to make teachers laugh and my mates laugh in class," he said.
"I never had people say you should do it but no one was surprised when I started doing it.
"But I was also terrified of public speaking so it too me a long time just to get the guts to stand up in front of people."
He will be appearing at the Civic Pub in Braddon Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, July 4 to 6, at 7.30pm. Tickets are from trybooking.
And he'll have plenty of friends in the crowd.
"A lot of Bay people live in Canberra and both my sisters live in Canberra," he said.