AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2008
Vic: Class clowns battle to be Australia's funniest school kid
By Michelle Draper
MELBOURNE, AAP - Who is Australia's funniest school kid?
Traditionally, the notoriety of the student who kept all the other school kids entertained
in the dullest of lessons was confined to the classroom.
Not so any more. At least, not in Australia, where the Melbourne International Comedy
Festival has devised a way to bring these class clowns out of obscurity and plonk them
centre stage. In front of 1500 people, no less.
Catherine Hall is one of about 12 acts from around the country who will converge on
the Melbourne Town Hall for the grand final of the comedy festival's Class Clowns competition
on April 11.
"I decided that I wanted to go into comedy last year when I was watching TV," she quips.
"And there was this guy called John Howard and he was doing this hilarious impersonation
of a really bad prime minister."
Hall, from the Victorian town of Warragul, is hoping her gags about politics, career
counsellors and high school crushes that have kept her school chums entertained will now
get her over the line of the national comedy competition.
Now in its 12th year, Class Clowns has grown from a Victorian competition to include
about 40 gigs across the country.
Students in years nine to 12 who want to compete take part in workshops with visiting
comedians in the first term of the school year, followed by heats the same day.
Judges then select the best from the heats to compete in state finals before the grand
final during the festival.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival's associate director and Class Clowns coordinator,
Toby Sullivan, says the event has now been running long enough to produce some notable
alumni.
Josh Thomas and Danny McGinlay are two former Class Clowns who now have their own shows
at this year's comedy festival, he says.
Thomas won the best newcomer award at last year's Melbourne Comedy Festival while Danny
McGinlay has gone on to become a mentor for the Class Clowns program.
Sullivan says while the event can launch young people's comic careers, it's a valuable
program in itself to support and showcase work by teenagers.
"Just because it's for a juvenile audience and with juvenile performers, that doesn't
mean it has to go somewhere or lead to something," he says.
"Teenagers deserve good quality performance as much as anybody and teenagers deserve
the support and showcasing opportunities at the festival as much as anyone."
Canberra student Toby Silcock seems destined for a career in comedy.
The 16-year-old Narrabundah College student has reached the grand final after his third
stab at the competition in as many years.
His observations about youth workers, who also claim to fix bicycles, impressed the
judges, while Silcock also finds plenty of comic opportunities in reality television.
Silcock says he's more excited than nervous about performing before 1500 people at
the Melbourne Town Hall.
He's also wondering what will happen if he wins, or if he doesn't.
Will he just go home, or will someone offer him a television show? Probably not, he
reckons, but it'd be nice if they did.
Either way, he can imagine comedy will play some role in his future.
"I know that I'm probably going to be working in comedy in some way," he says, adding
it could be in movies, television or radio.
"It may not necessarily be stand-up."
As a Class Clown mentor, Rebecca De Unamuno has the privilege of watching students
like Silcock finetune their funny bone.
During workshops she ran in Canberra and Sydney, De Unamuno offered feedback to budding
comics about their material and how best to use the stage and microphone.
Included in the tips is the importance of pausing for comic effect.
"Timing is really important, particularly if they haven't performed in front of an audience.
"If there is a response from an audience, that's the key to comedy, (it) is being able
to go with that, to ride that reaction."
She reckons it's a pretty bold achievement on the part of the young students to write
and perform their own material in front of large audiences.
"Even though it is a competition, them having written something, gotten up there and
done it in front of an audience is so brave," she says.
"And I think once you get over that hump of doing it for the first time, a lot of them
get the bug and are bitten, and they keep doing it."
She's also surprised about how comedy savvy the students are, and also how politically aware.
"One student in Canberra did a Brendan Nelson joke. They're just aware of what's going
on and that can only be a good thing."
Hall, with her references to John Howard, says her political gags are ones that teenagers
can relate to.
But while she's chasing the title of Australia's funniest school kid, Hall says she
can't really admit to being the class clown. At least, not in every class.
"I'm a drama nerd," she says. "In drama I'm pretty funny and in maths, I'm not so funny."
The Class Clowns National Grand Final is at the Melbourne Town Hall, Main Hall, on
Friday April 11 at 1pm (AEST).
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