Melbourne International Comedy Festival set to grace city stages

Good old belly laughs are back as tshe Melbourne International Comedy Festival prepares to hit the stages with a sensational line-up of acts.

Kicking off on March 30, and running until April 24, the city will be buzzing with this year’s festival to feature more than 400 shows. There’ll be plenty of old favourites; Arj Barker, Stephen K Amos, David O’Doherty, Mark Watson, Flo & Joan, Carl Donnelly, and Phil Wang who returns after his Netflix special, with the world premiere of The Real Hero In All This.

This year’s festival program will also be expanded beyond the city with shows hitting the suburbs through “Neighbourhood Sessions” which will see acts performed at Thornbury, Narre Warren, Werribee, Footscray, Moorabbin, Preston and Broadmeadows.

There will be something for everyone with performances including Comedy Club for Kids and The (Very) Big Laugh Out running all through the school holidays.

Other much-loved annual events filling up the calendar include The Gala proudly supporting Oxfam, Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow, The Great Debate, Upfront, plus the National Grand Finals for RAW Comedy, Deadly Funny and Class Clowns.  

Local favourites sure to create some hilarious gags include Carl Barron, Becky Lucas, Harley Breen, Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen, Georgie Carroll, Nick Cody, Joel Creasey, Alice Fraser, Luke Heggie, Nazeem Hussain, Sammy J, Jimeoin, Ali McGregor and more •