Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2025

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is one of the three largest comedy festivals in the world, alongside Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival. And is the largest stand-alone comedy festival

An annual event, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival literally takes over Australia’s comedy capital, Melbourne, each autumn with an enormous program of stand-up comedy, cabaret, theatre, street performance, film, television, radio and visual arts.

The Festival was launched in 1987 by Barry Humphries and Peter Cook.

The Festival also produces three flagship development programs: Raw Comedy, Australia’s biggest open mic competition; Class Clowns, a national comedy competition for high school students; and Deadly Funny, an Indigenous comedy competition that celebrates the unique humour of Indigenous Australians.