The Melbourne Comedy Festival will hold Class Clowns competition heats (ie. performances) in capital and regional cities all over Australia in Term 2, often as we follow the touring Festival Roadshow around the country. From all of these gigs, the best acts from each state are flown to Melbourne to appear at the National Grand Final on the main stage of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Entry is open to anyone in Years 9 to 12 or between 14 and 17 years old. No need to have completed a previous workshop or been involved with Class Clowns before.

ARE YOU A COMEDIAN? IT’S A SERIOUS QUESTION!
Since beginning in 1996, Class Clowns has been the starting point for dozens of professional Australian comedians:

• Kynan Barker (1996) has been writing for Rove McManus since 1999.
  
• Tom Ballard (2004-06) has been doing trial midnight-to-dawn shifts on Triple J.
  
• Josh Thomas (2002-04) just got back from the Montreal Comedy Festival after winning the 2007 Melbourne Best Newcomer Award.
  
• Elbow Skin (1997) toured the Comedy Festival Roadshow in 2005.
  
• Danny McGinlay divides his time between a stand-up comedy career in the UK and Australia.
  

Are you next? Let’s find out. Registrations for the 2009 competition open in February 2009.
Click here to see the draft schedule for your town.

Class Clowns charges a nominal registration fee… and that’s it.
The Comedy Festival and your local co-presenter pays for the workshop, the heats, assists with travel costs for regional heat winners to attend their State Final, and pays for State Finalists to travel to Melbourne for the Grand Final.