Raw Comedy Award

Raw Comedy is an Australian competition for emerging stand-up comedians, established in 1996 and held annually since.

Heats take place in major Australian cities through January, February and March. State semi-finals and finals are held in the state capitals in March. The final is held as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April and televised on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The winner of Raw Comedy is sent to the So You Think You're Funny competition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Two Raw Comedy winners, Drew Rokos and Nick Sun, went on to win So You Think You're Funny.

Raw Comedy is produced by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and supported by youth radio station Triple J. It grows more popular every year with the number of contestants in 2011 being a record 1100.

Past winners

• 1996 Stephen Head and Anthony Manchetti
• 1997 Subby Valentine (NSW)
• 1998 Chris Franklin (NSW)
• 1999 Chris Wainhouse (Qld)
• 2000 Drew Rokos (Vic)
• 2001 Emily O'Loughlin (SA)
• 2002 Dave Elvins (NSW)
• 2003 Nelly Thomas (Vic), and Steve Sheehan (SA)
• 2004 Nick Sun (NSW)
• 2005 Josh Thomas (Qld)
• 2006 Hannah Gadsby (Tas)
• 2007 Jonathan Schuster (Vic)
• 2008 Neil Sinclair [1] (Vic)
• 2009 Michael Workman (WA)
• 2010 Luke Heggie (NSW)
• 2011 Dayne Rathbone (Vic)

Past Finalists

2001

• Emily O'Loughlin (SA) (winner)
• Alan Rutledge (Qld)
• Eleven Thh (Tas)
• Geraldine Hickey (Vic)
• Luke Whitby (SA)
• Martin Steel (Qld)
• Michael Chamberlin (Vic)
• Penny Tangey (Vic)
• Robert Nix (NSW)
• Ronan McChesney (NSW)
• Ross Janetzki (Qld)
• Terry North (Vic)
• Vanessa Hill (NSW)
• Xavier Michaledes (WA)
• Yianni Agisilaou (Vic)

2003

• Nelly Thomas (Vic)
• Steve Sheehan (SA)
• Sam Simmons (SA)
• Jeremy Miller and Chris North (NSW)
• Shalini Akhil (Vic)

2006

• Hannah Gadsby (Tas) (winner)
• Michael Williams (Vic) (runner-up)
• Celia Pacquola (Vic) (Raw Recruit Prize)
• Dylan Bennett and Kadek Hobman (SA)(runner-up)
• Bart Freebairn (Qld)
• Bec Hill (SA)
• Tom Ballard (Vic)
• Jeff Hewitt (WA)
• Danii Johnstone (NSW)
• Paul Ayre (NSW)
• Sasha Terranova (Vic)
• Matt Burton (Tas)
• Ben Jenkins (NSW)
• Selina Jenkins as “Beau Heartbreaker” (Vic)

2007

• Jonathon Schuster (Vic) (Winner)
• Aamer Rahman (Vic) (Runner Up)
• Jack Druce (NSW) (Raw Recruit Prize)
• Xavier Susai (WA)
• Shaun Conroy (Qld)
• Ellen Briggs (Qld)
• Maverick (NT)
• Aleisha McCormack (Tas)
• Anyone for Tennis (Vic)
• The D (SA)
• Tracy Crisp (SA)
• Saikim Wan (NT)

2008

• Neil Sinclair [2] (Vic) (Winner)
• David Cunningham (NSW) (Runner Up)
• Laura Davis (WA) (Raw Recruit Prize)
• Melinda Buttle (Qld)
• Ryan Coffey (Vic)
• John Conway (WA)
• Michele Fryer (SA)
• Scott McGowan (NT)
• Luke McGregor (Tas)
• Louise Sanz [3] (Vic)
• Smart Casual (NSW)
• Jay Sullivan (ACT)

2009

• Michael Workman (WA) (Winner)
• Charles Barrington (Anthony Rogers) (Vic) (Co-Runner Up)
• Don Tran (Vic) (Raw Recruit Prize)
• Mikey Mileos [4] (NSW)
• Rhys Nicholson (NSW)
• Tracey Cosgrove (Tas)
• Shikhar Thakur (WA)
• Adam Keily (SA)
• Nicole Roddy (NT)
• Pam Rana (Qld)
• Ben and James Stevenson are The Stevenson Experience (ACT)
• Ash Walmsley (Qld) (Co-Runner Up)
• Shannon Woodford as “Adele” (Vic)

2010

• Luke Heggie (NSW) (Winner)
• Ronny Chieng [5] (Vic) (Special Mention)
• Geoffrey Windle (Qld) (Special Mention)
• Catherine Hall (Vic)
• Callan Durlik (WA)
• Levi Dobson (NT)
• Moataz Hamde as "Mo-Taz" (SA)
• James Mullany (WA)
• David Bakker (Tas)
• Sam Radford (Vic)
• Anne Edmonds (Vic)
• James McCann (SA)
• Peter Escott (Tas)

2011

• Dayne Rathbone (Vic) (Winner)
• Khaled Khalafalla (Vic) (runner-up)
• Tom Gaynor (SA) (runner-up)
• Xenethor (NT)
• Adam Knox (Vic)
• Adam Francis (Vic)
• Tien Tran (WA)
• Genevieve Fricker (NSW)
• Laura Hughes (NSW)
• Sam Campbell (QLD)
• Ting Lim (QLD)
• Claire Sullivan (TAS)

See also

• Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• Stand-up comedy

External links

• Raw Comedy page at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival site