May the God of Mirth bless those plucky folks from Canberra Comedy Festival, who have whipped up another stellar batch of chuckle-inducing talent for 2019’s event.
BMA caught up with the folk to find out what we have in store:
The Canberra Comedy Festival returns from March 18 – 24 in 2019 in spectacular fashion – announcing over 60 shows from all walks of life to fill the streets and roundabouts of Canberra with gales of laughter.
There was an early Christmas present for Festival goers on Saturday Night with “A Very Canberra Comedy Festival Christmas” entertaining a capacity crowd at the Canberra Theatre. The MC for the night, Anne Edmonds, is bringing her brand new show back to the capital for the festival – and is excited to be doing so. Anne told us:
“Canberra! Loved hosting your Christmas gala last weekend. Big props to the heckler right off the top who I beat easily. Can’t wait for the rematch next year at my festival show ‘What’s Wrong With You?’ Anne is performing on Friday 22nd of March at the Canberra Theatre Centre.
The stellar line-up consists of a truly international flavour in 2019 featuring:
- Festival favourite Jimeoin (IRE) returning to the Canberra for the first time in years
- The Canberra premiere of the wildly successful international sell-out hit, the very gory, racy and sexy Game of Thrones parody THRONES! The Musical Parody (USA)
- Canberra favourite Ronny Chieng (MAL) returning to our shows fresh from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
- Daniel Sloss (SCO) appearing fresh off the back of not one but two hit Netflix specials
- Paul Foot (U.K) returns to the festival with a brand-new hour of his absurd, award winning and side-splitting comedy
- The unique, bold, brash, runaway hit of the 2018 festival Sh!tFaced Shakespeare (U.K) returns with an utterly sozzled A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Australia’s favourite matador, Ivan Aristeguieta (VEN), returns to live la vida loca in Canberra.
- Baby Wants Candy (USA) are a worldwide improvised sensation who will perform an entirely improvised Broadway musical WITH a full band!
- Award winner Fern Brady (SCO), Nominee for the biggest comedy award in the world Larry Dean (SCO), Best of The Edinburgh Fest (UK/CAN), and New Zealand’s Guy Montgomery (NZ) round out the 2019 international headliners.
The Australian contingent remains as strong as ever, featuring a brand new show from perennial festival favourite and Australian comedy royalty Akmal.
“I’m back in Canberra because I wasn’t careful with my money. Oh, also Canberra is nice,” says Akmal, who is performing on Saturday 23rd March at Canberra Theatre Centre.
Other Aussie artists representing in the capital include Dave Hughes, Joel Creasey, Nazeem Hussain, John Safran, Becky Lucas, Rhys Nicholson, The Chaser, Charlie Pickering, Zoe Coombs Marr, Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs, Damien Callinan, Sam Campbell, The Stevenson Experience, Nick Cody, Luke Heggie, Randy, The Little Dum Dum Club, Dave Thornton, Tahir, Neel Kolhatkar, Tanya Losanno, Dilruk Jayasinha, Ciaran Lyons, Tommy Dassalo and Daniel Townes.
There is also a great pool of local and emerging talent including Chris Ryan, Tom Gibson, Anthony Tomic, Andrew and Danny Bensley, Maddy Weeks, Emma Holland, Harris Stuckey, Simon Bower, Koori Showcase, Frankie McNair, Sweaty Pits, Unedjamacated, Bill Makin, Idris Stanton Hardcore Light Entertainment and Whet Brekkie.
The flagship events are also returning, with the 2019 Canberra Comedy Festival Gala well on the way to selling out already, and the return of the family friendly favourite Clean Comedy Spectacular. Festival Square also makes a magnificent return, taking over Civic Square with a wide assortment of shows, late-night comedy, music, drinks, food and the opportunity to rub shoulders with the performers – Festival Square really is the place to be during the festival.
All of this is crammed into a packed week of laughs, with the 2019 festival occurring from 18th to the 24th March 2019. The full program can be browsed at www.canberracomedyfestival.com.au
