Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Andrew Hamilton on Finding Comedy in Prison"

Episode Date: May 25, 2025

In 2021, Andrew Hamilton spent four months in two of Sydney’s maximum-security prisons for supplying psychedelic drugs. While behind bars, he discovered something unexpected — the power of laughter. Jono, Ben, and Megan chat with Andrew about how cracking jokes in prison sparked his journey into stand-up comedySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the Jono, Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to HelloFresh, your home advantage for delicious midweek dinners that everyone will love. Yes, I'm extremely excited. This is my first time doing shows outside of Australia, so I'm absolutely pumped. Oh, really, really interesting story. A bit of a wild story. For people that don't know you, you know, you went to prison and your show is about that. So what led you to that, if you don't mind me asking? Sure. Well, I was working in public relations in Sydney for many, many years.

And at the same time, I was moonlighting as a magic mushroom dealer, which I kind of slipped into because my mate researched how to grow them. And we started eating magic mushrooms and having a great time. And I was helping my friends out. And that kind of slowly escalated. Bit of a side hustle. Yeah. It started as a side hustle, trying to help out friends. And then over the course of many, many years,

it kind of escalated into quite a big business. Is that why you told the judge, oh, it kind of just escalated? Yeah. You know how these things, is it a crime to try and help out the boys? So obviously you got caught and this is all part of your show as well. But what was that moment like when you're like, oh my goodness, I'm actually going to prison? The arrest part is part of the show

and it was extremely surreal. It was like a Friday afternoon and I was just at home doing a lot of party drugs myself. And then I just heard this very loud crack noise in the front door. I didn't know what it was. I thought some guy in the area had just fallen into the door or something and then I heard police search warrant and then the whole house starts shaking as they're trying to smash through it with a battering ram and yeah it just suddenly it feels like you're having a very very bad dream. And so what happens

from that point? You're taken to the station? So i had to sit there in the house for a few hours as i went through the house and tried to find all the drugs around the house and then i didn't realize you could go straight to prison um but the next day i was in maximum security prison in parkway prison in sydney wow what is that moment like where you're walking into maximum security prison? Well, I think that I did benefit weirdly from the fact that I'd been out partying for like three or four days. All I really wanted to do was sleep. I didn't really have much time to kind of process much. And because it was during COVID, I was putting quarantine for the first two weeks. And so you kind of had this weird period where I was stuck in a cell for 23 and a half hours a day.

I didn't have any TV or books. So I was just kind of stuck in my own horrifying thoughts for the first couple of weeks before you were released into kind of general population prison. So even though you're in a general population wing where there's chaos, I was just like, I not just happy to be around people even though they've got tattoos all over their face i'm just happy to see another human and it's maximum security right like were you scared of the other people like what kind of people were in there yeah because when you're on large commercial drug supply charges you're mixed in with everyone so I was in there with guys who were in there for a double murder and guys who were also weirdly in there

for driving while disqualified. Just like a mix of everyone. And so you've got a mix of characters and from what we gather, there's a hierarchy. Do you slip in? Do you make friends? Do you make enemies?

How does it work? I did make friends. I was very lucky to have a cellmate who was my cellie in like four different prison wings, and we got along really well. It was his first time in prison as well, so we kind of had each other's back. But I found, look, if you're not involved in the gangs or don't have any kind of drug beefs or gambling debts, you can kind of keep a relatively low profile.

So I just try to stay as invisible as I can and not rub people the wrong way. But, yeah, I found that people thought it was kind of funny that I was in there for mushrooms. That was kind of considered quite an exotic crime. And you're like, it was just a business. They got out of control. I was just helping a mate.

They were organic. People always ask me did i start doing comedy in the yard but absolutely not no i wasn't trying to because you tell a joke in a prison yard and it goes the wrong way you can have very negative consequences very quickly so the idea though to you know to get into comedy which you're now doing very successfully on all over the internet performing in new zealand but that came from being in prison now how did that come about? I had this moment where I had to reflect on how it all went wrong really and if I could start my life again what would I do differently and and weirdly the only answer in my head was to get into stand-up comedy I think I'd always wanted to do it but I and I

used to love going to local Sydney comedy shows but I was too much of a wimp to do it but i and i used to love going to local sydney comedy shows but i was too much of a wimp to try it and so i just made myself this promise that when i got out i'd start doing it and i started writing jokes in in the yard oh in my cell because as strange as it is when something funny happens in jail it seems like just such a strange foreign place to have a laugh even more well yeah i imagine there's a lot of a lot of good people in there who have just made bad decisions absolutely yeah and i think that that's uh another part of what i try to do with my comedy in a kind of a sincere way is just show people that uh not everyone that goes to jail is evil and then i think that um with the right support um there is a rehabilitation pathway

for a lot of people um i was recently invited to perform in a maximum security prison in Sydney. Really? Full circle. Yeah, but it was definitely one of the harder gigs I've done. Tough crowd, tough crowd. Literally a tough crowd. So you get out of prison, you want to do comedy, you go along like that. But I understand you had sort of like conditions of parole, right?

You had to bring your parents along to every gig yes that's exactly right so my bail conditions were that i wasn't allowed to leave the house unless i was in a company of my mum and dad who were both in their mid-70s and so how stoked for mum and dad with this whole journey when it got to the comedy part i think they were happy to support me because they were happy i was doing anything other than dealing drugs it was incredibly low i went to these gigs and I had to bring my mom along and then I you've got to put your name in a bucket that's how these uh kind of open my comedy nights normally work you put your name in a bucket they draw it out randomly and so I was put on quite late and I had to say look I don't know you guys don't know me from a bar of soap but I have to go on early because I have a prison I have a bail

curfew fortunately I found most guys in most people in comedy were extremely supportive of me and and yeah it just helped me to change my life just being in a totally new environment and I found that making jokes about my whole dumb life and all my mistakes was incredibly cathartic. I wasn't sure if people were going to boo me off stage when I started doing it, but I found people wanted to hear the story. They got that I was making fun of myself and it totally changed my life. It's kind of, yeah, you have like this new enlightened look on life and I love that. But you also wrote a book, The Profound Benefits of a Stint in Prison. I did.

What's your main mantra or something you live by now that you tell people since you've come out? I think that for me, I'm very fortunate that I felt like prison for me was a crisis point where I was able to ask myself some hard questions about what I want to get out of life. And I think that sometimes people don't have that until they lose a job or they have health issues or a divorce or those kind of things, and then they just reflect on,

we're only on this earth for a very short time. What do I want to get out of it? So I guess I hope for people to have that conversation with themselves without having to go through the shit, really, right? Yeah, good on you. Bloody stoked to have you in New Zealand, and it's ironic because usually Australia's kicking out our ex-cons and sending them back to New Zealand,

so we're welcoming the Australia ones over as well. You know, I've only been allowed out of Australia since December. That's when I finished. I was serving a sentence called an intensive corrections order, which is basically a non-custodial sentence in the community here in Australia. But that finished in December last year. So this is the first time I've been able to do some international touring. And of course, New Zealand had to be number one on the list

because they seem to have a pretty decent fan base over in NZ. So yeah, I'm excited to be coming and hopefully we can fill up some of these shows. Awesome. Andrew Hamilton, thanks so much for your time. I love watching you online. It's great to talk to you. Thank you so much, guys. This was awesome. You guys rock. Cheers.