Raw Comedy is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n competition for emerging stand-up comedians

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

, 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

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...

 in April and televised on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

.

The winner of Raw Comedy is sent to the So You Think You're Funny

So You Think You're Funny

So You Think You're Funny? is an annual stand-up comedy competition for new acts. The competition began in 1988 and has become the longest running best comedy newcomer award in Great Britain....

 competition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Two Raw Comedy winners, Drew Rokos and Nick Sun

Nick Sun

Nick Sun is an Australian stand-up comedian. He is of Nepalese extraction, but chooses to eschew obvious cultural stereotyping in his act, favouring a style that has been described as "unhinged", "offensive" "nihilistic" and "self-destructive."...

, 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

Triple J

triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

. 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
  Subby Valentine
  Subby Valentine is an Australian comedian and radio presenter. Valentine came to prominence in 1997 after winning Raw Comedy, a national competition for new comic talent. He has since worked as a writer and performer for radio, free-to-air television and pay TV.Valentine mastered his trade on the...
  
  (NSW
  New South Wales
  New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
  
  )
• 1998 Chris Franklin
  Chris Franklin
  Chris Franklin is an Australian stand up comedian and former sailor for the Royal Australian Navy. He is most famous for writing the song "Bloke" , which reached #1 on the ARIA Charts in 2000...
  
  (NSW)
• 1999 Chris Wainhouse (Qld
  Queensland
  Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
  
  )
• 2000 Drew Rokos
  Drew Rokos
  Drew Rokos is an Australian comedian who won both the 2000 Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Raw Comedy competition and the Edinburgh Comedy Festival's So You Think You're Funny competition.-References:...
  
  (Vic
  Victoria (Australia)
  Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
  
  )
• 2001 Emily O'Loughlin (SA)
  South Australia
  South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
  
  
• 2002 Dave Elvins (NSW)
• 2003 Nelly Thomas (Vic), and Steve Sheehan (SA)
• 2004 Nick Sun
  Nick Sun
  Nick Sun is an Australian stand-up comedian. He is of Nepalese extraction, but chooses to eschew obvious cultural stereotyping in his act, favouring a style that has been described as "unhinged", "offensive" "nihilistic" and "self-destructive."...
  
  (NSW)
• 2005 Josh Thomas
  Josh Thomas (comedian)
  Joshua Michael "Josh" Thomas is an Australian comedian. In 2005, at the age of 17, he became the youngest ever winner of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Raw Comedy Competition...
  
  (Qld)
• 2006 Hannah Gadsby
  Hannah Gadsby
  Hannah Gadsby is an award-winning Australian comedian. She quickly rose to prominence after winning the national final of the Raw Comedy competition for new comedians in 2006...
  
  (Tas
  Tasmania
  Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
  
  )
• 2007 Jonathan Schuster (Vic)
• 2008 Neil Sinclair http://vimeo.com/3786376 (Vic)
• 2009 Michael Workman (WA)
• 2010 Luke Heggie (NSW)
• 2011 Dayne Rathbone (Vic)

2001

• Emily O'Loughlin (SA) (winner)
• Alan Rutledge (Qld)
• Eleven Thh (Tas)
• Geraldine Hickey (Vic)
• Luke Whitby (SA)
• Martin Steel (Qld)
• Michael Chamberlin
  Michael Chamberlin (comedian)
  Michael Chamberlin is a Melbourne-based stand up comedian. Along with fellow comedian Charlie Pickering, Michael was a co-creator of influential Melbourne comedy room Stagetime....
  
   (Vic)
• Penny Tangey (Vic)
• Robert Nix (NSW)
• Ronan McChesney (NSW)
• Ross Janetzki (Qld)
• Terry North (Vic)
• Vanessa Hill
  Vanessa Hill
  Vanessa Hill is a pornographic actress.-Awards:*2008 AVN Award winner – Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production – Furious Fuckers Final Race...
  
   (NSW)
• Xavier Michaledes (WA)
• Yianni Agisilaou (Vic)

2003

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

2006

• Hannah Gadsby
  Hannah Gadsby
  Hannah Gadsby is an award-winning Australian comedian. She quickly rose to prominence after winning the national final of the Raw Comedy competition for new comedians in 2006...
  
  (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
  Tom Ballard
  Tom Ballard is a tall, blond, fast-talking, openly gay, Australian radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Thomas Colin Ballard grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria and attended Brauer College Warrnambool, graduating in 2007 where he was dux with an ENTER of 99.80, and was consequently named as the...
  
   (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)
  Northern Territory
  The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
  
  
• Aleisha McCormack (Tas)
• Anyone for Tennis (Vic)
• The D (SA)
• Tracy Crisp (SA)
• Saikim Wan (NT)

2008

• Neil Sinclair http://vimeo.com/3786376 (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  (Vic)
• Smart Casual (NSW)
• Jay Sullivan (ACT)

2009

• Michael Workman (WA) (Winner)
• Charles Barrington (Anthony Rogers) (Vic) (Runner Up)
• Don Tran (Vic) (Raw Recruit Prize)
• Mikey Mileos
  Mikey Mileos
  Mikey Mileos is a stand up comedian and comedy writer from Sydney, Australia.In April 2009, Mileos was a national finalist in Triple J radio's Raw Comedy competition, a nationally televised event. Since then he has played at almost every major comedy club in Australia...
  
    (NSW)
• Rhys Nicholson
  Rhys Nicholson
  Rhys Nicholson is a comedian originally from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, now living in Sydney.He was a finalist of the Raw Comedy Award in 2009 and performed at the Sydney Comedy Festival in 2010....
  
   (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)
• Shannon Woodford as “Adele” (Vic)

2010

• Luke Heggie (NSW) (Winner)
• Ronny Chieng (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)

External links

• Raw Comedy page at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival site