Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s RAW Comedy competition has spent 30 years finding Australia’s next comedy star, and they’re not done yet.
Australia’s biggest open mic competition crowns its next comedy sensation at RAW Comedy National Grand Final, this coming Sunday 12 April at Melbourne Town Hall.
RAW Comedy has been doing this for 30 years; finding the people nobody has heard of yet and turning them into the names everyone knows.
RAW Comedy has unearthed some of Australia’s biggest names in comedy, including Hannah Gadsby, Ronny Chieng, Anne Edmonds, Bron Lewis, Sam Campbell and Aaron Chen.
With 59 heats across the country and over 1000 contestants this year alone, it’s a track record that’s pretty hard to argue with.
RAW Comedy National Grand Final
- When: Sunday, 12 April, 5:00pm
- Where: Melbourne Town Hall – Main Hall
- Duration: 120 minutes
- Suitable for ages 15+
- Tickets here
The finalists
- Aidan Mungai (ACT)
- Elias Jambula (ACT)
- Brandon Duff (NSW)
- Joshua Khoury (NSW)
- Effie Tan (NSW)
- Jack Russell (NT)
- Antoine Basseto (QLD)
- Tilly Harrison (SA)
- Joshua Pillay (TAS)
- Jorgia Rice (VIC)
- Jake Zukerman (VIC)
- Mae McCubbin (VIC)
- Lachlan Skinner (WA)
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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Now it’s 2026, and the national heats have been running since January, putting fresh talent through its paces in rooms across the country.
Top performers from those heats have fought their way through to the RAW Comedy National Grand Final, where they’ll take to the Melbourne Town Hall stage on 12 April to battle it out for the ultimate bragging rights, and a trip to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is about as good a launching pad as the comedy world has to offer.
Hosted by Luke McGregor — himself a RAW Comedy alum — the Grand Final is two hours of pure, unfiltered stand-up from the sharpest emerging voices in Australian comedy. Expect unexpected punchlines, brave material and at least one act you’ll be telling your friends about for weeks.
There’s genuinely no better place to catch the future of Australian comedy before it becomes the present.
For more information, head here.
