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Class Clowns comedy competition
Class Clowns is a stand up comedy competition run by Melbourne Comedy Festival and Arts Victoria, featuring Australia’s funniest high school comedians from years 9 -12.
This year’s grand final competition went off with a side-splitting bang on Tuesday 15 September 2009. The grand final was held at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre.
The show featured nine of Australia’s funniest teenagers. With $1000 up for grabs and a further $1000 for the winner’s school, the stakes were high.
Triple j's own funny man, Dave Callan, was host, with Colin Lane (formerly of Lano and Woodley), Councillor Cathy Oke (City of Melbourne), Wes Snelling and Melbourne Comedy Festival Producer Gideon James as judges.
The contestants came from all over Australia and each put up hilarious stand up routines of five minutes each. While the judges were pondering over who the winner was going to be, the crowd was treated to a special guest routine by comedian Celia Pacquola.
The eventual winner was Neel Kolhatkar of Sydney. I caught up with him after the show and found out a little bit more about Australia’s funniest teenager.
The winning performance was inspired by the comedian Russell Peter and Neel’s background. I asked him what he planned to do with the prize money. He replied, "No idea, definitely going to spend it because saving is boring and spend on something big."
The best thing about the competition for Neel was the people he got to meet, especially comedy legend Colin Lane. Of course the prize money was a big incentive too!
I asked Neel why he got involved and he replied, "I am hoping to go into the entertainment industry and a mate of mine did the competition the year before and got to the finals."
With a side-splitting routine Neel was crowned Australia’s funniest teenager and National Class Clown Champion for 2009.
If you're interested in competing in the competition, keep an eye out for the heats in the 2010 Melbourne Comedy Festival.
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