Lehmo - Comedian, Radio Host & TV Presenter
Lehmo is one of Australia’s most experienced and well-known comedians, radio and tv presenters. Lehmo has worked alongside some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry after over a decade in radio, and being a regular on hit TV shows Have You Been Paying Attention, Hughesy, We Have a Problem, The Project and Before The Game. He also stars in Logie Award-winning ABC comedy series Utopia.
Lehmo's website: https://www.lehmo.com.au/
Lehmo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lehmo15/
Verbatim from the transcripts — each quote links to the moment.
“It's good. It's nice to be a slightly crustier version of yourself. If that guy had a shower and a shave and was 10 years younger, he'd be Limo.”
“It's the classic, like, a comedian will perform to 1,000 people in a room, 999 will lose their shit. And the one person who's not laughing is the person you'll try and hunt down after the gig.”
“I am like that with my— I'm a real list guy. I need lists. I'm always writing lists, and if I don't have a list, I get anxious.”
“He'll— he will install one son as the head of all the intelligence agencies. He'll install his other son as the head of the military. His daughter will be the secretary of state.”
“All right, so you think about— and I'm talking about when you eat something, okay, how quickly does that item of food make you sad?”
“He said, well, it's not paying any rent, it's giving you no return on your investment. You always get rid of a bad tenant.”
“Like as, as my account, the guy who does my accounting now, he says, you're the only person I've ever known phone who has no money in the bank and looks at their credit card and considers that money in the bank?”
“I don't think people realise how fragile comedians are.”
How can you manage daily anxiety around unstructured time?
Lehmo says he needs a handwritten list every day, even a very simple one (like 'breakfast, lay on beach, go to bed'), because without a list he feels anxious not knowing what's coming next; he also uses lists for every stand-up set.
How do you create career opportunities through networking?
Lehmo advises that opportunities often come from small, low-pressure conversations rather than formal pitches — stopping someone in a hallway and casually mentioning interest in a type of gig can lead to major, long-running opportunities.
Lehmo recalls taking his now-wife on an early date to a drive-in cinema with takeaway Nando's, prompting a nostalgic tangent about old speaker-on-a-pole drive-in technology.
Lehmo describes going in for a routine mole check, where his doctor convinced him to remove an unrelated mole using a 'bad tenant not paying rent' sales line, and later regretting not photographing the moment for a planned joke.
Lehmo recounts feeling faint and lightheaded for weeks, then mentioning his jet-black stool to TV doctor Andrew Rochford after a Sunday Project taping, who urgently sent him to emergency; it turned out to be internally bleeding stomach ulcers.
Lehmo explains he quit his accounting job around $20,000 in debt from mismanaged credit cards and loans, earned only about $12,000 in his first year of stand-up at age 32, and spent two years hustling before landing a radio job at 34.
At a group cinema outing for Parasite during Adelaide Fringe, Lehmo quietly ate an entire bag of Froot Chocs without sharing while sitting between two comedians, then felt guilty when one of them offered around his own lollies.
Drawn from the episode transcripts.
The hosts' young producer, Mr. 97, once saw a stranger ordering a sandwich near their old office and remarked that the man reminded him of Lehmo, which became the origin story the hosts bring up when Lehmo finally appears on the show.
From episode 621→No — Lehmo insists Nando's is not really fast food to him, even joking it's 'fine dining,' while Josh and Tommy tease him for drawing the line there.
From episode 621→He quit a poorly-managed accounting job around $20,000 in debt, spent roughly two years sleeping on friends' couches earning about $12,000 in his first year of comedy, before landing a breakfast radio job at 34 that helped stabilise his finances.
From episode 621→Every episode featuring Lehmo "Lehmo" on The Daily Talk Show.
