When it comes to making a crowd crack up comedian Tom Ballard is a master joke-teller but his decision to withdraw from the Sydney Festival over its Israeli funding has been no laughing matter.
The festival, which wraps up on Sunday, has endured weeks of negative publicity and withdrawals by dozens of acts including comedians Judith Lucy and Nazeem Hussain as well as TV personality Yumi Stynes and Indigenous theatre troupe Marrugeku.
