Laugh it up at Sydney Comedy Festival

The Sydney Comedy Festival is this city’s biggest annual comedy event hosting shows in venues all across town.

With comics from Australia and across the globe gearing up to spread laughter across the city from April 22 to May 19, it is shaping up to be the biggest year to date. Highlights include the opening and closing Galas at various venues featuring a dazzling line-up of the Festival’s funniest stars.

HIGHLIGHTS

SH!TFACED SHAKESPEARE

A hilarious blend of an entirely serious Shakespeare play with an entirely sh!t-faced cast. What could possibly go right? With a genuinely inebriated cast member each night, no two shows are ever the same in this raucous, riotous, rampage through Shakespeare’s most iconic play. Adult content.

TOM GLEESON

Tom has performed at every major comedy festival in the world, been nominated for a Helpmann Award three times, won a Gold Logie for the Most Popular Personality on Australian TV and is the host of two smash TV shows, Hard Quiz on ABC TV and Taskmaster on Network Ten.

MELANIE BRACEWELL

You may have seen her on her hit show, the Cheap Seats, or embarrass herself on Taskmaster NZ. Now is your chance to see her live as she brings her brand-new stand up show to venues across Australia and New Zealand in 2024.

REUBEN KAYE

Loud, politically active, queer, brash. Multi-award winning, Australian comedian, singer, and writer Reuben Kaye returns to the Enmore Theatre in Sydney with his brand new show, APOCALIPSTIK. Part eulogy, part elegy, part Eastern Bloc Dog Day Afternoon. This scandalous story of Reuben’s scoundrel Uncle springboards into a cabaret that crosses continents, generations, and the political spectrum of the 20th century.

EFFIE

Effie’s alter ego, Mary Coustas, is the award-winning star of ground-breaking Australian comedies and one of Australia’s best-loved character actors and comics. Effie? She is cheap yet expensive. Deep yet shallow. Thick yet thin. Effie is a mass of teased hair and ethnic contradictions.

ED BYRNE

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 was a bumper 5 star review year for Irishman Ed Byrne. They came in thick and fast alongside outstanding critical acclaim for this exceptionally funny, Best Reviewed Stand Up Show at Edinburgh 2023.

STEPHEN AMOS

Stephen K Amos is back with a brand new show, after treading the boards of London’s West End in the smash hit musical My Fair Lady. Join him for an hour of solid jokes and guaranteed belly laughs.

ANNABEL CRABB 
To celebrate turning 50, Annabel Crabb is marking this special milestone with her Sydney Comedy Festival one-woman show: 50 Odd Years of Crabb. In a half-century, Annabel has been a farmhand, cookbook author, political correspondent, podcaster, mother, defendant, and intruder in political kitchens. In her new show, Crabb fires off 50 things she’s learned over 50 years of life, from a farm upbringing to kitchen tips to life around politics all the way through to ageing and dealing with grief.

For more show details go to sydneycomedyfest.com.au

Venues

Enmore Theatre

This illustrious art deco building is in the heart of Enmore Rd and home of the Sydney Comedy Festival’s biggest shows.

Factory Theatre

Located in the middle of Marrickville surrounded by cafes and breweries, this is the place to be for those wanting to explore the Inner West.

Comedy Store

Sydney’s most prestigious comedy club in Moore Park, next to the famous Sydney Cricket Ground, also hosts comedy shows every week of the year.

Manning Bar

Tucked away in the heart of the University of Sydney Campus, this plays home to a return two-week season from the Sh!tfaced Shakespeare theatre troupe.

The Concourse Chatswood

In the bustling Lower North Shore, one of the country’s biggest opera venues also runs a month of comedy during the Sydney Comedy Festival.

Pavilion PAC in Sutherland

The new home of performing arts in the Sutherland Shire. This is a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose venue seats almost 700 patrons.