Yawp Mag ISSUE 19 Getting Ready for the Comedy Festival | Page 23

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Gerry Connoly as The Queen

dy Festival
UK circus troupe 'Ra Ra Zoo'

Alan Pentland, who performed as part of the 1969
'University of Melbourne Architecture Revue'.
Cabaret-style comedy acts went onto perform in
cult venues, such as the back theatre at the Pram
Factory in Carlton, The Reefer Cabaret in Prahran
and the Flying Trapeze Café in Fitzroy. Cabaret
shows were expensive to run, causing a move to
promote the more common style, stand-up comedy.
Although the live and local stand- up scene was
not as big as it is today, it was starting to gain
momentum, with stand-up comedians performing
at venues such as the Comedy Cafe (owned by
the Razzle Dazzle Revue) and its Banana Lounge
stand-up room (launched in 1980) which provided
an outlet for emerging local comedians at the time,
such as Richard Stubbs, Wendy Harmer, Mark
Little and Vince Sorrenti.

festival in Melbourne would prove to be a perfect
place for a comedian to perform and launch their
career.
launch was held on April Fool's Day, 1987. Barry
Humphries (Dame Edna Everage) and British
comic Peter Cook were featured to help celebrate
the launch. 'The Age' newspaper released a fake
front page, the chief magistrate opened his court
for a mock trial involving local performers and
members of the public and the festival hired two
comedians to walk around Melbourne dressed as
Melbourne City Council workers and rummage in

shows by the 'Doug Anthony Allstars', 'Wogs Out
of Work', 'Gerry Connolly', 'Los Trios Ringbarkus'
and 'Rod Quantock's Bus Show' and international
Ideas for a comedy festival in Melbourne were guests including the UK circus troupe 'Ra Ra
Zoo', poet Roger shows.
government approved a grant supported by the
chairman of the Victorian Tourism Commission.
many attempts throughout the 1980's to establish a
comedy festival and even persuaded the Victorian
Tourism Commission to fund an overseas trip in
order to investigate the international comedy
scene. After the trip was held, Pinder submitted a
report to the government on why