2026 Stand Up! Grant recipients

Minister for Creative Industries, Colin Brooks, announced the three comedians who have received $5,000 support through the 2026 Stand Up! Grants program to develop and present their work at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival.

This year’s recipients are Alex Hines, Mish Wittrup and Tarsh Jago.

Award-winning comedian, actor and creative Alex Hines will bring her absurdist theatre show BIRDS, created with collaborator Sarah Stafford, to the Malthouse Theatre.

Mish Wittrup, known for her work with Aunty Donna and on shows like Fisk, invites her audience to take a walk down memory lane at her show Not As Good As I Remember.

Tarsh Jago, a proud Palawa woman, will present her first solo stand-up show, Cherub, bringing her razor-sharp comedy and heartfelt storytelling to Melbourne Town Hall.

Stand Up! was established by the Victorian Government in 2019, in partnership with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and honours the life of the late Eurydice Dixon, a Victorian woman whose promising career in comedy was cut tragically short.

Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks said:
'The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is a huge launching pad for emerging talent and these grants are set to help this year’s recipients make the most of this opportunity while bringing plenty of laughs to festival goers. We’re proud to honour the legacy of Eurydice Dixon and help these talented comedians overcome some of the barriers that still face women and non-binary performers working in comedy.'

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Director Susan Provan said:
'Alex, Mish and Tarsh represent the breadth of style, originality and huge talent defining the current Victorian comedy scene. Weird, wonderful and hilarious, they’ll all be grabbing our attention for years to come'.

2026 Stand-Up! Grant recipient Alex Hines:
'I still can't believe it’s real, I’m incredibly grateful for this support! Usually, at this time of year I’m scraping by, trying to balance my casual job and creative work in the lead up to the festival. Now I can focus on realising the work in a more ambitious way, without losing all my hair to stress alopecia – what a dream!'

Book your tickets to Stand Up! supported shows today!