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 a National Grand Final.
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 May and July 2009, often in conjunction with the Festival's Touring Roadshow, and the Grand Final takes will likely take place in August or September.
Developmental Workshops and other supporting activities take place the year round.
Sign up
Class Clowns 2009 is open for registrations now! Click here to sign up.
Meanwhile, 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.
But don't put your Term 1 diaries away yet! Class Clownists everywhere are still a big part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival itself in April. Watch out in 2009 for a special event spectacular: the [b]Class Clowns Teenage Gala[b]!
The Class Clowns Teenage Gala is a brilliantly funny showcase of the best comedians in Australia younger than 20, the cream of the Class Clowns crop!
April 24 is the day for this precocious partner of the Festival's grown-up Gala, an L-plated clusterthunk of embarrassingly talented Clownists from around the country.
Tickets to the Teenage Gala are on sale here.
