Class Clowns is a national comedy competition and mentoring programme for young people at secondary school in Years 9 to 12, that sits as the flagship of the Comedy Festival’s Education programme.
At a Class Clowns gig, students who have prepared up to 5 minutes of stand up comedy, a group sketch, musical parody, or something else inbetween, participate in a workshop with a professional, practising comedian, before presenting their act at a real, live, public performance.
The performance is judged, and the winners of these local heats go forward into state finals, and the winners of each state are flown to Melbourne to perform at the National Grand Final in the Melbourne Town Hall as a part of the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The Grand Final winner receives $1000 cash for their school and a $1000 budget to buy themselves something nice, too!
To facilitate the large, national scale of the project, we work closely with local co-presenters to solicit entries and produce each performance.
Heats take place between in February and March, and the Grand Final takes place in April as part of the Comedy Festival itself. Developmental Workshops and other supporting activities take place the year round.
Sign up
The 2008 Class Clowns competition is over. Class Clowns 2009 will open for business in October 2008. However, explore the site and contact the Comedy Festival if you're interested in any preliminary workshops throughout the year, or any other aspect of your education programme.
