Australia's biggest comedy competition
RAW Comedy is Australia's biggest and most prestigious open mic comedy competition. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has been producing it since 1996, and past RAW Comedy winners and finalists include Chris Lilley, Josh Thomas, Hannah Gadsby, Peter Helliar, Claire Hooper, Michael Workman, Mike McLeish (Keating! The Musical) and Tim Minchin. RAW Comedy runs nationally every year between January and April.
Registrations for RAW Comedy 2012 are now open! Subscribe to our e-news to recieve up to date information.
To visit the comedy festival website click here
What is RAW Comedy?
- RAW Comedy happens in every capital city in Australia and in some regional centres.
- You enter your details and your preferred heat date here.
- You go and do a 5 minute spot of new, original comedy material at the heat.
- Heats are compered by a professional comedian and are open to the public.
- The best acts from the heats go on to State semifinals, then to a State Final.
- The best acts from all the State Finals go into a National Final.
- The National Grand Final is held in the Melbourne Town Hall as a feature event of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and recorded for broadcast by ABC1.
The ultimate RAW Comedy National Champion jets off to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – the world's largest and most awesome annual comedy fun time to compete in So You Think You're Funny?
What are we looking for?
The judges are invited and drawn from industry, performers, media,
and other local identities. There is no formal, structured way of 'marking'
or 'scoring'. Judges are instructed to identify performers with potential
for creative achievement. Some of the things they look out for are quality
and originality of material, performance skills and audience response.
Click here to read the formal Judging Policy.