From Deployment to Punchlines

Former Soldier Returns to Timor-Leste with Darwin Comedy Tour

A recent comedy trip to Timor-Leste has combined humour, service history and community support, highlighting the enduring connections between the Northern Territory and its close neighbour.

Australian comedian Jarryd Goundrey and Darwin comedian Briant Clark travelled to Dili earlier this year, joined by Monica Bugno. Clark and Bugno are co-owners of The Last Supper Darwin and Top Floor Comedy Darwin, where they run Darwin’s only weekly comedy club. The trio travelled to Timor-Leste to perform stand-up comedy shows and explore opportunities for cultural exchange between Darwin and Dili.

For Goundrey, the trip marked a return to a country that holds personal memories. He first travelled to Timor-Leste in 2007 as an 18-year-old Australian soldier.

Back then, life on deployment looked very different.

“We were going to the toilet in a 44-gallon drum,” Goundrey recalled. “Every week we’d have to burn it all. It was pretty disgusting.”

But as soldiers often do, the troops adapted.

“By about week eight we were used to it. Someone would bring out a guitar, we’d roast marshmallows and get on with it.”

Returning nearly two decades later, Goundrey joked that conditions had improved significantly.

“This time there was a bidet,” he laughed.

The visit included two stand-up comedy shows at Spooners in Dili, featuring a mix of Australian and local comedians. The events attracted enthusiastic audiences from both the local community and expatriates living in the capital.

Clark and Bugno said the performances were an opportunity to connect through laughter while strengthening ties between the two cities.

“There’s a real sense of connection between Darwin and Dili,” Clark said. “Comedy is a simple way to bring people together and share stories.”

The trip also included meetings with local arts organisations and community groups working to support young people and creative industries in Timor-Leste.

Proceeds from the shows were donated to community initiatives including Cricket Timor-Leste and Casa Vida, a shelter supporting young women affected by domestic violence.

In a fitting twist of Australian maritime history, the team also donated a commercial kitchen oven to Casa Vida that originally came from a decommissioned Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy.

The oven had been sitting under Clark and Bugno’s Darwin home for the past three years, waiting for a new purpose.

Clark himself spent 13 years working on Australian Border Force patrol boats, so seeing equipment from a patrol vessel find a new life helping young women build hospitality skills felt particularly meaningful.

“Those boats spend their lives protecting Australia’s northern waters,” Clark said. “It’s nice to see something from one of them now helping people in our region in a different way.”

Since returning to Darwin, further support has continued. Efforts are now underway to collect second-hand cricket equipment from Australian clubs to support the development of cricket in Timor-Leste.

The visit also opened the door for future cultural exchanges between Darwin and Dili, including workshops, performances and opportunities for local artists to collaborate.

For Goundrey, returning to Timor-Leste in such a different role was a powerful reminder of the country’s progress.

“It was special to come back and share laughs with people instead of rations,” he said. “It shows how much things can change.”

Plans are already underway for another visit later this year, continuing to build friendships between Darwin and Dili — this time with microphones instead of field packs.