Australia runs one of the largest amateur stand-up comedy competitions – Raw Comedy. But don’t be fooled by the name. While the heat’s comic quality can be hit-or-miss, the grand…
So you’re after a fun night out, and watching stand-up comedy in Melbourne is at the top of the list. Well, you’re in luck, because Melbourne, and its neighbouring inner suburbs, has some…
Starting out in stand-up comedy in Australia is tough. Open mic gigs are in the evenings, often on a weekday, and the audience is usually comprised of other comedians with zero interest in your gags.…
Are you thinking of entering Raw Comedy 2019? Early expressions of interest for are now open. To enter just click here. Got no idea what I’m talking about? Well, what you should know is thaw…
Comedian Ben Horowitz knows Raw Comedy well – he entered three times. His first brush with the amateur competition was in 2002, and although he did pick up two footy club gigs immediately…
Guest post by public speaking guru, Michelle Bowden. Many of the students that undertake a School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course do so to improve their confidence, timing, and comedic…
There’s no one pathway to learn stand-up comedy. Dave Hughes took over four years on the open mic scene, whereas, some, like Chris Franklin and Matt Okine rose to fame quickly. But what is…
Practice is essential to a stand-up comedy career. Sure, the School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course will allow you to hit the ground running, but even we acknowledge that it’s still…
One part comedy, one part drama, and one part documentary; The School of Hard Knock Knocks (SHKK) has just wrapped up the filming of their TV pilot, “Is This Thing On?“. The brainchild of…
Comedian and actor, Dilruk Jayasinha, has taken out the ‘Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent’, at the 2018 Logie Awards, held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, beating out…
Guest post by Marty Wilson When you’re presenting to a group, do their eyes sparkle or gently glaze over? If you’re giving a speech, are they nodding in agreement, or just nodding off? At the end…
“The mind works in mysterious ways” – and the stand-up comic utilises this to reach deep into his or her psyche to find something that will make us laugh. So what happens when comic…
Practice is essential to a stand-up comedy career. Sure, the School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course will allow you to hit the ground running, but even we acknowledge that it’s still…
Practice is essential to a stand-up comedy career. Sure, the School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course will allow you to hit the ground running, but even we acknowledge that it’s still…
There’s few topics that are taboo when you’re part Indian, Zulu, Jewish, and plump. And in a display of misdirection, acting, and observational comedy, Carvin H Goldstone seamlessly and…
Several months ago I had the pleasure of being introduced to the comedy of Cameron James. He was the crowd pleasing headliner, performing at Riverina Comedy Club in Wagga Wagga, to a massively warm…
When it comes to stand-up comedy, not much has changed in the last 30 years. Turn up to a pub that runs an open mic night, perform five minutes of embarrassing jokes – repeat. Do that for three…
Two ladies from cities in the UK most Australians have never heard of, wearing an item of clothing most Australians wont know, driving vehicles most Australians have never seen. And yet The Kagools…
For someone so lightly framed, Gavin Sempel’s humour packs a punch. Indeed, the seemingly incidental goings on in most people’s lives, become highly visible targets, ripe for the Sempel comedic…
Edelman is one of the rising stars of stand-up, winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer (a difficult trick for an American), he’s supported Ricky Gervais, and has a special on…
The “Cranky Yank”, a true seasoned professional with an impressive CV including performances on Saturday Night Live, is able to have the audience laughing by mocking the politically correct…
Few comedians could successfully weave the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, and male feminism into a hilarious joke. But that’s no problem for ‘Old Wang’. The Malaysian born Brit, who…
A total of 39 graduates of the School of Hard Knock Knocks will be performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) this year. Each of the 12 shows, starting on April 5 and concluding…
Never has there been more important time to laugh. News and social media are bombarding us with doomsday predictions, nuclear annihilation, and societal chaos. Not that the kids have noticed. The…
It’s a dream of many comedians – to perform at the world famous Melbourne International Comedy Festival – or MICF for short. And why wouldn’t they dream?! Alongside the…
Did you know that funny people, especially those that like dark humour, have higher IQs? Interviewed on Today Extra, Marty Wilson elaborated on the results, uncovered by Austrian researchers.…
The Aussie larrikin has long been part of our culture. Paul Hogan, Barry Humphries, and Garry McDonald paved the international way for other Australian men to follow, and in doing so, helped mature…
Stand-up comedy is no longer a man-only affair – and rightly so. Today Australia is blessed with an abundant choice of female comedians – appearing on stage, panels, news platforms, and…
We Aussies know that our land is girt by sea, and filled with hilarious talent. While some of our comedians have stayed home, others have gone for far-off locations – and made their mark.…
THE NATURE OF THE STAND-UP INDUSTRY can be quite competitive. In some cases famous comedians undergo long-standing hiatuses before coming back into the limelight. Many have successfully transitioned…
YOU LIKELY REMEMBER THE STAND-UP GENIUSES Billy Connolly and Bill Bailey. Chance are you have DVDs of their performances to catch over and over again. But UK comedy has changed over the years. There…
IF YOU’VE JUST WOKEN FROM A COMA, you won’t know that the term ‘bucket list’ means a list of things that one would like to do before dying – that is, before…
I FIRST SAW THE DOUG ANTHONY ALL STARS, or DAAS if you are in a hurry, at the Union Building in RMIT University, Melbourne. It was 1994, and the trio had reached a decade into their abusive,…
IF YOU’RE NOT FROM MELBOURNE or you are, but have never left the house because you believe exam results are more important than a personality, then there’s a slight chance that…
PARKING INSPECTORS AND COMEDIANS have one thing in common – abuse from the general public. No matter how good your jokes, no matter how many friends you have in the audience, one day you will…
FIRST THERE WAS ‘SHAUN OF THE DEAD’. Up until then zombies were only grotesque, not hilarious. But Simon Pegg and Nick Frost changed the rules proving that zombies could be slap-stick,…
YOU KNOW EACH JOKE BY HEART. You’ve practiced a hundred times. But still, there you are, staring at the sea of faces from the stage, with a metaphorical tumbleweed rolling through your head.…
THERE’S MANY WAYS TO write a joke. At the School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course, we teach three. The one that we’ll share on this blog, is our favourite joke structure…
THE SHORT ANSWER IS ‘NO’ – unless you have a twin and your dad’s name surname is Nelson. But we weren’t talking literally, were we? We were talking metaphorically…
BUNGEE JUMPING, PARACHUTING and stand-up comedy. These are possibly the three most legally terrifyingly activities that one can do today, and yet, with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in…
THERE’S THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE who enrol in a stand-up comedy course, at the School of Hard Knock Knocks here in Melbourne. Those that want to be a stand-up comedian, those that have a bucket…
THERE’S A STATUE OF BURKE AND WILLS at the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets, right next to the Melbourne Town Hall – the centre of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.…
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, then chances are you like, nay, you love stand-up comedy. You love its rawness, its randomness, combined with the closeness you feel, of having a one-on-one conversation.…
JOIN VETERAN COMEDIAN, BEN HOROWITZ on March 20 to 24, at the Limerick Arms Hotel, in South Melbourne for five days of stand-up comedy training that culminates in your very own five-minute stand-up…
THERE’S MANY REASONS WHY you might be signing up for five evenings of stand-up comedy training. So which category do you fit into? The Future Comic The most obvious reason is that you want to…
A COMEDIAN COULD KILL ON ONE NIGHT, but bomb on another, with the only difference being the audience. Conducting an AUDIENCE analysis is one way of preparing before the big gig. Here’s the…
STAND-UP COMEDY CAN BE TERRIFYING. Jim Jefferies compares it to acting, stating that acting is “harder than a lot of things in life, but it’s not as hard as stand-up comedy.” If a…
JUST ABOUT ANY TOPIC is open for a comedian, but there is one thing you must not do – and that’s steal another comedian’s material. Even if you do steal a joke, it’s unlikely…
