Pilot is an exciting new program that supports young comedians to perform their first long form work at Melbourne International Comedy Festival. We’ve hand-picked five brand-new stand-up shows by the best young comics in the business – and you get to say you saw them before they were big!

Fully produced and performed by a diverse group of emerging young artists, every split bill is packed full of laugh-out-loud moments and supports Australia’s most promising and ambitious faces in comedy. A ticket will get you into two of these shows each night, with all the details below.
 

Emma Armitage-Ho – Ho Down
A show about pasta, entering adulthood, sisters, the golden crumpet man and other random crap. Emma Armitage-Ho riffs on her adolescence, Chinese background and other musings with an endearing teenage gawkiness. Come along and laugh at the worst parts of her life, since the best parts aren’t as funny.

Erin Almeida – Brownie Points
Erin Almeida is made of sugar and spice and everything (mostly) nice. However, with a childhood full of curries and kangaroos in rural Australia, there’s a bit more spice than usual. Erin is a self-proclaimed "white-washed brown girl" navigating the perks and quirks of being a seasoned enigma in a vanilla world. With this unique perspective, she challenges stereotypes with humour as bold and flavourful as a plateful of biryani.

'Undaunted by an audience, Erin Almeida took time off from a hectic and often serious school schedule to win accolades as one of the country’s best-up-and coming comedians.'  The Courier

Patti Fawcett – Okay, you romantic!
Patti Fawcett’s Okay, you romantic! is a learning experience on getting wronged and getting revenge quietly with the least amount of confrontation possible. Let one of Australia’s wittiest young comedians guide you through the truly unbelievable capers she gets herself into, with “a sharp observational eye, a unique voice, a mastery of syntax, timing, cadence. Fawcett possesses all” (The Age).

Stella Hall – Smiling Without Teeth
Stella is the average girl next door – as long as you live in a suburb peppered with private schools and a median house price of $3.5m. She’s a whip-smart comic whose intelligence unfortunately doesn’t transfer into common sense. Stella never lets the truth get in the way of a good story, but she’s not trying to make you laugh – that’s way too much pressure.

Mali Hawke – Life Hacks
Life Hacks is a sharp half-hour of musical comedy revealing what high school is really like. Mali Hawke was never top of his class, but he did get up to the most mischief. These are the stories he couldn’t tell while he was in school, and probably shouldn’t now.

Wednesday 27 March – Mali and Patti*
Thursday 28 March – Erin and Stella
Friday 29 March – Emma and Mali*
Saturday 30 March – Patti and Erin
Sunday 31 March – Emma and Stella*
Monday 1 April (Comedy Industry Night) - Stella and Erin

*Low visual

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok