 Melbourne Town Hall serves as a hub for MICF, and a venue for many shows | |
| Genre | Comedy festival |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Annually |
| Locations | Melbourne,Victoria, Australia |
| Years active | 38 |
| Inaugurated | 1987 |
| Attendance | 776,737(2019)[1] |
| Website | www.comedyfestival.com.au/ |
TheMelbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest internationalcomedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually inMelbourne over four weeks, typically starting in March and running through to April. TheMelbourne Town Hall has served as the festival hub, but performances are held in many venues throughout the city.
MICF 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 ofIndigenous Australians. Awards are given for the best acts of the development programs as well as other categories of performances. The festival also undertakes an annual national roadshow, showcasing festival highlights in regional towns across Australia.
The festival was founded in 1986 byJohn Pinder and his business partner Roger Evans.[2] According to Pinder, the idea of holding an international comedy festival originated in the early 1980s. In 1986, Pinder persuaded the Victorian Tourism Commission to fund an overseas trip in order to visit other international comedy festivals and investigate the possibility of holding a festival in Melbourne. Pinder became convinced it would work, and after his return he wrote a report for the state government, which they accepted. The inaugural festival was launched in 1987 at a media conference hosted byBarry Humphries (asSir Les Patterson) andPeter Cook.[3][4]
Traditionally the festival would open on or aroundApril Fool's Day (1 April), though it now[when?] generally begins in mid-to-late March and runs for roughly four weeks.[4] Its first year, in 1987, featured 56 separate shows, including performances by theDoug Anthony All Stars,Wogs Out of Work,Gerry Connolly,Los Trios Ringbarkus, andRod Quantock. By 1999, it contained over 120 shows and was being attended by some 350,000 patrons annually.[5] In 2010, it played host to a record (at the time) 369 shows and 4,947 performances both local and international, including artists from the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and China. In addition, it achieved an attendance of over 508,000 and its highest-ever box office revenue ofA$10.9 million, ranking it as Australia's largest cultural event.[6] Activities were originally centred around the Universal andAthenaeum Theatres but in the early 1990s, the MICF shifted its venue to the newly refurbished Melbourne Town Hall, which has remained the festival hub. Soon after this, it spread out further to include an independently produced program at theMelbourne Trades Hall as well.[4] In 2010, for the first time, the Festival also ran the Trades Hall venue.[citation needed]
In 2006, the opening of the festival was delayed due to the Festival Melbourne that occurred as part of the2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne.[7]
The 2020 festival was cancelled in its entirety due to concerns surroundingCOVID-19 and the extension of restrictions relating to efforts to stem the spread of thepandemic in Australia.[8]
The MICF generally begins in mid-to-late March and runs for roughly four weeks. It is one of the three largest international comedy festivals in the world, behindEdinburgh'sFringe Festival and ahead ofMontreal'sJust For Laughs.[citation needed]
Although it is mainly a vehicle for stand-up and cabaret acts, its programme has also featured sketch shows, plays,improvisational theatre, debates, musical shows, and art exhibitions.[4][9] There is also a tradition for experimenting with unusual comedy venues, such as Rod Quantock's "Bus" tours and the similar "Storming Mount Albert ByTram", which used buses and trams respectively as mobile theatres in which the audience members were also passengers.[10]
The MICF plays host to hundreds of local and international artists; in 2018, the festival listed over 550 shows and 6,700 performances (including more than 160 free performances) by 3,500 artists. Although it is mainly a vehicle forstand-up andcabaret acts, the festival has also includedsketch shows, plays,improvisational theatre, debates, musical shows and art exhibitions. The televised Gala is one of the festival's flagship event, showcasing short performances from many headline and award-winning comics. Other popular events include The Great Debate, a televised comedy debate, the Opening Night Super Show, and Upfront, a night of performances exclusively featuring female comedians.[citation needed]
TheMoosehead Benefit is held on the last night of the festival to raise funds for the Moosehead Awards, which provide grants to support emerging comedians.[11]
Following the end of the festival in Melbourne various local and international comedians join the MICF Roadshow, which spends several months touring regional Australia and in 2010, Singapore.[12]
In addition to over 200 nightly shows which play during the festival, there are a number of special one-off events. The best-known of these is theComedy Festival Gala, which showcases short acts from many headlines and award-winning comedians performing shows at that year's festival. It has become known as the festival's flagship event and typically sells out months in advance. It is typically hosted by well-known popular comedians. Headline acts at the Gala have included world-famous comicsArj Barker,Eddie Ifft,Adam Hills,Russell Kane,Stephen K Amos,Mike Wilmot andRich Hall. The Gala is filmed and broadcast at a later date during the festival on theABC.[13] Since 1995 the Gala has been a charity event, with all proceeds from the live performance and the screening going toOxfam Australia.[14]
The Great Debate has been an annual event since 1989 and has been televised variously onNetwork Ten,Nine Network and currently airs onABC.[15] The comedy debate features two teams of comedians facing off loosely in the structure of aformal debate over humorous topics such as "Laughter is Better Than Sex", "Coming First is All That Matters" and "Food is better thansex". The winning team is chosen by audience applause.[15][16][17] Since 1994, the festival has produced Upfront, a night exclusively featuring female comedians which routinely sells out.[18]
Each year, the MICF ends its Melbourne run by recognising the most outstanding shows and performers with a series of awards.
The Age Critics' Award was presented to the best local act between 2001 and 2010, as selected by reviewers at the Melbourne newspaperThe Age.[19]
The award for the most outstanding show of the festival is theMelbourne International Comedy Festival Award. It was called the Barry Award until the 2019 festival, named afterBarry Humphries. However, due to comments abouttransgender people, including describing transgenderism as "a fashion", Humphries' name was removed from the prize and it was renamed.[20]
TheGolden Gibbo was established in 2004 in honour of Australian comedianLynda Gibson, who died of cancer in 2004.[21] It celebrates a local, independent act that "bucks trends and pursues the artist's idea more strongly than it pursues any commercial lure"[22] The recipient of the Golden Gibbo receivesA$3,500 in cash, and the Golden Gibbo statue ("which looks suspiciously like a bottle of shitty red wine"). The award is funded by theMoosehead Benefit,[21] which is staged on the last night of the festival.[11]
As of 2024[update] the other MICF awards include:[23]
In addition to the MICF awards, the Brian McCarthy Memorial Trust, which was established in 1987 in honour of Melbourne comedian, actor and fringe comedy producer Brian McCarthy, who died in an accident. Funds are raised by the Moosehead Benefit on the last night of MICF, and the trust gives grants to help support emerging comedians.[11] In recent years it has supported up to six comedians each year[25] by grants which pay the MICF registration fee, the firstA$3,000 of venue rental, up to A$2,500 for creative support, and up to A$2,000 towards accommodation costs if the recipient lives outside of Melbourne.[26]
From 1988 to 2018,cartoonistMichael Leunig designed the artwork for the festival program and other materials such as advertising posters.[27] In 2019, Leunig was replaced byJudy Horacek, following his recent controversial works on vaccines and marriage equality. Horacek will remain as the illustrator for the festival until at least 2020.[28]
Australian comicPeter Helliar says that performing in Melbourne is more fun for comedians because there is less pressure involved than in Edinburgh, where there is greater competition to gain an audience.[29] JournalistSimon Fanshawe describes Melbourne as "the festival where the comedians go to play ... the most relaxed, least fevered and probably the most audience-friendly of all the festivals."[30]
Lorin Clarke, a Melbourne-based writer and director of comedy theatre, suggested that shows self-produced by Australian comedians have great difficulty competing against shows featuring international comics which are produced by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Clarke argues that this conflict of interest stifles creativity.[31]