Funny enough to win $1000 for yourself and $1000 for your school?

Each year hundreds of secondary school students from Years 9-12 participate in the Class Clowns competition across the country – discovering or refining their skills in writing and performing comedy and channelling all that cheeky tomfoolery into entertainment for a wider audience.  And it’s free to enter!

The Rules:

• Open to secondary students in Years 9-12 or 14-18 years old
• 5 minute time limit for acts
• Up to 3 people in an act
• Routines must be original, well rehearsed (and funny!)
• Sketch acts, stand up, parody and musical comedy all welcome

How it works:

• Heats around the country (check out the calendar here) starts with a 2 hour workshop/rehearsal with a professional festival comedian to help polish everyone’s 5 minute acts 
• Then the show kicks off with our comedian as MC (audience most welcome and actively encouraged!), entrants are judged and winners go through to State Finals
• State Final winners are flown to the National Grand Final in Melbourne during the high-profile hijinks that is the Comedy Festival in April – for a chance to win $1000 for themselves and $1000 for their school!

To enter complete the online registration

Not sure if you want to participate?

Then come along to the show to see what it’s all about – it is a (cheap and sometimes free!) rollicking good time and may provide some inspiration for your own written or performance work back in the classroom. Click here to see the calendar and find a show.

Don’t fit the criteria for Class Clowns?

Then sign up to the RAW Comedy open-mic competition for up and coming comedians which is also run by Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

"The standard was incredibly high – young, talented and above all, funny!  I loved witnessing what will be the start of many comedy careers, I look forward to watching and borrowing money from them in the future."
 - Celia Pacquola, National Final Judge 2012

2012 National Grand Final Winner - Aaron Chen, and runner ups Matt Wallace and Elyza Day
with judges Celia Pacquola, Lawrence Leung and Glenn Robbins