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
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.
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
Role model
