Melbourne International Comedy Festival's legendary talent search returns for another year.
Your group chat thinks you’re hilarious. Your coworkers say you should do stand-up. Raw Comedy 2026 wants to find out if they’re right.
Melbourne International Comedy Festival has opened registrations for the 2026 edition of Raw Comedy, the national competition that has spent more than three decades turning nobodies into somebodies. The competition requires just five minutes of original material and enough nerve to get on stage, with heats kicking off across Australia from January.
Raw Comedy 2026
- National Grand Final: 12 April, Melbourne International Comedy Festival
- Heats: January onwards, locations across Australia
- Register at rawcomedy.com.au
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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Raw Comedy has a track record that speaks for itself. Hannah Gadsby, Ronny Chieng, Anne Edmonds, Bron Lewis, Sam Campbell and Aaron Chen all got their start through the competition before going on to tour internationally, write for television and film, and generally become the comedians everyone else gets compared to. The winner of the 2026 competition scores a trip to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is about as good a launching pad as exists in the comedy world.
Top performers from the national heats will compete for a spot in the Raw Comedy National Grand Final, taking place on 12 April during the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Each heat features a completely different lineup, meaning audiences never quite know what they’re going to get. Hosts for the 2026 heats include Claire Hooper, Rowan Thambar, Bron Lewis, Carl Donnelly, Scout Boxall and Robyn Reynolds.
Even if you’re not ready to perform, the heats are worth attending just to spot the next big thing before anyone else does. Browse dates and locations on the site.
For more information, head here.
