This coming monday, the 11th annual Sydney Comedy Festival kicks off at venues accross the city of Sydney. If you love abdominal workouts, having small laughter tears leaking from the corner of your eyes, peeing in your pants just a tiny bit, feeling good and being entertained, then this is for you. If that’s not your jam, then this picture of Tommy Dassalo should keep you intrigued for a while.

Tommy Dassalo will be performing his show ‘Cutie Pie’.

THE premier event for comedy in Australia, the line-up is a spectacle of international and home-grown talent. In 2015, in venues accross the city, there will be over four internet page scrolls of comedians, performing on stage over 27 days to a cummulative audience of over 100 000 revellers.

This year both international acts and homegrown talent will take the stage to give audiences all over a good abdominal workout. With the Gala festival, Fresh program and Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase and loads more individual events running, this is going to be a jam packed, crackajack, repetitive knee-slap, single tear rolling down your face kind of festival and one you should be a part of too.

For the full festival program, click here.

Emerging comedian, Bridie Connell performs ‘Natural Habitat’ as part of the Fresh program.

FRESH

The Fresh program ofers emerging talent the chance to be mentored and coached by the best in the business. These talents are given a stage to perform on, exposure to a huge audience, financial assistance and marketing collatoral to help facilitate their transition into the life of a professional comedian.

A huge boost for the public professional profiles and refined sophistication in the art of comedy, previous participants include Matt Okine and Ronny Chieng who have both gone on to have award-riddled careers inthe stand-up comedy industry.

With such incredible talent rising accross the nation, the FRESH program is a great opportunity for any emerging comedian and those looking to take their craft to the next level. The FRESH acts, featuring the best of the emerging talent, are not to be missed, click here for more information.

FESTIVAL EVENTS:

With overwhelming choice on this years comedy line-up, we’ve highlighted a few of our favourite events that give you and your strong tendency for FOMO a grand buffet of comedy. There are events for every audience, from movie nights to corporate breakfasts, check out some of the highlights below:

Yo’ mamma so …… comedians battling it out to insult YOUR mamma.

• Yo’ Mama Battle 2015 – Watch comedians battle to the deaths with their best comeback jokes. The audience (that’s you) decide the topic and the comedians battle down their opponents with their top shelf yo’ mama jokes. This is our secret pleasure, our naughty corner of comedy where it’s perfectly okay to be just a little bit naughty.
  Where: The Factory Theatre
  When: Friday 8th May – Friday 16th May – 10pm
  
• 60 in 60 – A laugh a minute – They call this the hour of power. With 60 comedians, each given 60 seconds to make you laugh. Feast on the best one-liners, deadpan and rapid-fire storytelling from the best in the business.
  Where: The Factory Theatre
  When: Saturday 16th May – 10:30pm
  
• Australia’s Funniest Shorts – Watch the best short films and sketches, produced by the best comedians and filmakers in the business.
  Where: The Factory Theatre
  When: Tuesday 28th April – 7:30pm

  “Australia’s Funniest Shorts is the nation’s premier comedy shorts festival. As comedy is the most popular short film and new-media genre, it provides  a vital element in Australia’s film culture”. Tim Ferguson

• Break Out – 5 of Sydney’s finest emerging comics are being showcased in the Break Out Comedy event. Funded and supported by the Marrickville Council, this is your opportunity to see some of the up and coming in their greener years.
  Where: The Factory Theatre
  When: Tuesday 12th – 16th May – 7:30pm
  

  Check out the best of the comedy industry’s emerging talent.

• Cracker Night – Kicking off the festival with an epic line up of Australian legends, international comedians and the best emerging talent in the industry. This is a massive line-up of talent over 2 hours accross thre of Sydney’s iconic venues.  This massive event is playing five times over the course of the festival, to find out more information about the when’s and where’s for this side splitting night of comedy, click here.“…a line-up as fine as you could expect anywhere, and a great way to launch the Sydney festival. No wonder they call it Cracker Night.” –Chortle (UK)

• LOL Corporate Breakfast –  Grab a table for you and your colleaguues at the funniest breakfast of the year. A charity event, held at the ANZ stadium,  this is a great opportunity or networking over a delicious meal and buffet of laughter. Running for the 6th year in a row, this is an event not to be missed. 
  Where: ANZ Stadium
  When: Thursday 14th May 12th – 6:00am

• The Gala To End All Galas – The final farewell for the Sydney Comedy festival, this event is hosted at the iconic Enmore Theatre and brings to stage this year’s funniest of the funny. A buffet of talent poised to close the festival with a bang!
  Where: The Enmore Theatre
  When: Thursday 12th May – 7:30pm

Notice the friendly comedic gorilla pop-up around the festival

THE SHOWCASE

If you’re reading this and you’re outside of Sydney, first off thank you for your attention span. Secondly, there’s great news! because if you’re not in town or don’t live in town for the festival, you’re not completely out of luck.

For the third year in a row, the Sydney Comedy Festival will be taking their top performers on the road. For 5 months, the comedians will travel the country, performing to sell-out crowds at epic venues from Sydney to Byron Bay, everywhere in between and also a lot further…like Brisbane.