Class Clowns
Class Clowns is Melbourne International Comedy Festival's development program for young people around the country. From comedy workshops in schools to a national comedy competition, Class Clowns engages and inspires young funny peeps to hone their potential.
Composing primary of a competition held across the country, heats, semi-finals and then finals are run in each Australian state and territory, with the winners of the state finals competing in the Grand Final in Melbourne. The Grand Final is held during Melbourne International Comedy Festival at the Forum Theatre (with previous venues Melbourne Town Hall and Malthouse Theatre). Professional comedians who have hosted the grand final are such big names in comedy as Tom Gleeson, Nath Valvo and special guest comedians perform a headline set (in previous years comedians such as Peter Helliar, Tripod, Ross Noble, and Judith Lucy have performed).
Notable comedians who have performed as entrants in Class Clowns include, Josh Thomas, Tom Ballard, Joel Creasey, Rhys Nicholson, Aaron Chen, Velvet Winter, Lauren Duong, Mia Timpano, and Imaan Hadchiti.
The 2018 final took place on Friday April 20 at the Forum Theatre.
Previous Class Clowns National Grand Finalists
| Year | Winner | Other |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Fat Chicks Bite Back (Jess Shanahan, Hayley Robinson, Paul Saunders & Adam Weller) |
|
| 2001 | Paul Saunders | |
| 2002 | Goibon Hanastende | |
| 2003 | Fred Sterer |
|
| 2004 | Stephen Brooks |
|
| 2005 | Imaan Hadchiti and Tobey Duncan | |
| 2006 | Adam Knox |
|
| 2007 | 'H2WOAH!' Jacob Machin and James Seamark |
|
| 2008 | Tom John | |
| 2009 | Neel Kolhatkar |
|
| 2010 | Matthew Ford |
|
| 2011 | Tom Matthews |
|
| 2012 | Aaron Chen |
|
| 2013 | James Warren |
|
| 2014 | Gergor Tarrant |
|
| 2015 | Will McKenna |
|
| 2016 | Lauren Duong |
|
| 2017 | Daniel Reeve |
|
| 2018 | Liam Adam, Carlin Carruth
& Kyle Bennett as 'Awkward' |
|
| 2019 | Patti Fawcett |
|
| 2020 | NA due to COVID19 | NA due to COVID19 |