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Life.Culture.Discovery.

Why this former investment banker turned to comedy after burning out in the corporate world

How strategy consultant Ben Quinlan – whose dad was the biggest international selling record artist from Hong Kong – finds respite on the ‘terrifying’ stand-up stage

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Benjamin Quinlan is a Hong Kong/Australian comedian who is quickly making a name for himself on the local comedy circuit. Photo: SCMP

My mother is from Shanghai and came to Hong Kong when she was two years old. She became a model. My dad, Noel, was born in Sydney and became a professional guitarist when he was 15. In 1967, he moved to Hong Kong and was the singer and lead guitar player at the Hong Kong Hilton Den and then set up his own record company. He launched his own album series in the early 1990s called Middle Kingdom, fusing Western and Chinese music, and became the biggest international selling record artist from Hong Kong, with about 1.5 million albums sold. My parents got married in 1976. My brother was born in 1979 and I was born in 1983, at the Canossa Hospital.

Benjamin Quinlan’s dad, Noel Quinlan, with Michael Hutchence of Australian band INXS recording their album, Kick, at his recording studio, the Sound Department. Photo: Courtesy of Ben Quinlan
Benjamin Quinlan’s dad, Noel Quinlan, with Michael Hutchence of Australian band INXS recording their album, Kick, at his recording studio, the Sound Department. Photo: Courtesy of Ben Quinlan

Chill zone

Dad was a massive creative influence in my life. Having a Chinese mother who was a bit of a hippy, I didn’t have a strict, disciplined upbringing. It was quite an open and liberal upbringing in a loving and expressive family. I went to Bradbury School and then South Island School. As a kid, I did a lot of voice-over work, commercials, sang and played guitar in bands and was a lead actor in the stage show Hong Kong Through the Ages. I loved entertaining. It brought me a lot of happiness to see people enjoying themselves.

Lone ranger

Comedian and strategy consultant Benjamin Quinlan. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Comedian and strategy consultant Benjamin Quinlan. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
In 1996, just before the handover, things were slowing down workwise for dad, and my parents wanted to get out of Hong Kong. They settled my brother and me in boarding school in Sydney, and 10 months later they moved to Sydney. Having grown up in Hong Kong with a helper, it was a shock to be thrown into Australia by myself and I found the transition to an all-boys country school difficult. In Hong Kong, my birthday parties had felt like a mini United Nations, but there it was provincial and being half Chinese didn’t sit so well. The Asian kids weren’t brought into the other groups.

Role model

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