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introduction

In 2016 the city partied harder than ever before as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary. Featuring a mass of local and international stars, it was one big party and everyone was invited! From the humble beginnings of 56 shows in year one to over 520 shows in 2016, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has become Australia’s national comedy festival and one of the largest in the world. The Festival has played host to thousands of performers, with millions of people entertained and inspired by their fearless imaginations in the pursuit of free speech and good times. With over 160 venues of all shapes and sizes stretching from east-to-west and north-to-south, Melbourne was again transformed into giant comedy hub. The festivities attracted audiences from near and far, from junior laughter-lovers at The (Very) Big Laugh Out, to late-night hijinks at the Festival Club. The Festival would not be possible without the enthusiasm and great humour of the artists, staff, partners and audiences – may the laughs continue for another 30 years!

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festival snap shot

Celebrating 30 years of laughs, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival offered up 6,416 performances from 2,048 artists – enjoyed by over 760,000 attendees.

PROGRAM •! 528 shows in 163 venues across 26 days •! 6,416 performances, including 207 free performances •! 2,048 artists, helped by 1,341 support personnel

AUDIENCE •! 763,325 total attendance •! 554,024 paid attendance •! 148,422 people attended free events

BOX OFFICE •! $16,399,107

Australian artists make up 79% of the Festival program

average ticket price

$30

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festival snap shot continued

TV & RADIO Live audience numbers were boosted by 5 million for nationally broadcast TV specials on Network Ten (The Gala, Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow and The Great Debate), ABC TV (Comedy Up Late, Stand & Deliver), SBS2 (RAW Comedy National Grand Final) and Foxtel’s The Comedy Channel (Big Three-Oh).

The laughs also rolled across the airways with radio broadcast specials on 774 ABC Melbourne (Comedy Bites), triple j (Good Az Friday) and Nova 100 (Chrissie, Sam & Browny and Hits & Giggles).

SOCIAL The Festival continues to enjoy strong growth in social networks and engagement with: •! 101,421 EDM subscribers (311K unique opens*) •! 25,854, Twitter followers (3.64M impressions*) •! 30,516 Facebook followers (2.9M reach*) •! 12,618 YouTube subscribers (2M views*), and •! 5,290 Instagram followers

* Online reach / engagement is reported for activity during the Festival period alone: 15 February (website launch) to 17 April (last day of the Festival).

WEBSITE The Festival’s fully optimised website remains a key tool for communicating with new and existing audiences, with unique visits to the season website up 11% on last year.

During the Festival period alone (website launch to close of Festival, 15 Feb – 17 Apr): •! 1,166,416 visits •! 635,104 unique visitors •! mobile/tablet users 62%, desktop users 38%

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audience snap shotMelbourne International Comedy Festival boasts a diverse and loyal audience – with over 50% of audiences attending five or more Festivals over the past decade.

Research conducted over the past years has shown that demographics of the Festival audience have remained consistent and the average attendee looks like this… •! Slightly female skewed gender mix -

Female 55% Male 45%

•! 73% audiences are from Melbourne, with 13% from regional Victoria, 11% interstate and 3% overseas

•! Aged 20-49 (75%)

•! University educated (80%) •! Income is evenly spread - $50,000-

$90,000 (51%) •! Likely to have attended AFL matches and

visited the National Gallery of Victoria and the Arts Centre Melbourne (>50%)

75% of audiences

surveyed attend at least 2 shows

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audience snap shot continued

Where do attendees come from? •! The vast majority of attendees come from the greater Melbourne area (73%) •! 13% of attendees are regional Victorian visitors •! 11% of attendees are interstate visitors –

o! 44% from NSW o! 21% from Queensland o! 12% from WA o! 9% from SA o! 6% from ACT o! 5% from Tasmania, and o! 1% from NT

•! 3% of attendees are from overseas •! Visitors stayed on average 1-3 days •! Over 90% of visitors from both regional Victoria and interstate indicated that

they were likely or very likely to return as a result of attending the Festival.

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30th anniversary special events Thirty years ago an idea was hatched to create a festival to showcase and celebrate Melbourne’s ground-breaking comedy and cabaret venues and the performers who inhabited them. From its humble beginnings with 56 shows across 33 venues, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has become one of the biggest in the world.

To celebrate this significant milestone, the Festival presented not only another cracking program, but also some very special 30th anniversary events. 30TH BIRTHDAY BASH - GALA A massive line-up of comedy superstars past, present and future raised a glass to 30 years of laughs at the historic Regent Theatre with the 30th Birthday Bash. Co-hosted by Tommy Little and Cal Wilson, the line-up included Eddie Perfect, Rich Hall, Greg Fleet, The Umbilical Brothers, Wendy Harmer, Luke McGregor, Gerry Connolly, Nina Conti, Rod Quantock, Rachel Berger, Simon Munnery, Wil Anderson and a very special performance reuniting legendary Australian comedy duo Lano & Woodley. Filmed by Foxtel for a six-episode series on The Comedy Channel – Big 3 Oh! – from Friday 3 June.

BIG FAT (30TH BIRTHDAY) COMEDY QUIZ Hosted by Comedy Festival favourite Lawrence Mooney, The Big Fat (30th Birthday) Comedy Quiz crowned the biggest Australian comedy trivia buff! Held in The Famous Spiegeltent the Quiz also featured Sammy J, Dave O’Neil and Geraldine Hickey.

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30th anniversary special events continuedHUMOUR US - EXHIBITION From the 1987 launch with Peter Cook and Sir Les Patterson, through photographs, footage and ephemera, the life and mood of the Festival was captured at a major exhibition to celebrate the Festival’s anniversary – Humour Us: 30 years of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Presented in collaboration with Arts Centre Melbourne at Gallery 1.

LIVE PANELS Live panel discussions were held each weekend of the Festival in the surrounds of the exhibition.

SATURDAY’S: Festival Buzz - host Nath Valvo was joined by 12 Australian and international comedians across four sessions to catch up on news, gossip and cracking stories about the Festival and the world of comedy!

SUNDAY’S: The Decades That Were - host Cal Wilson was joined by nine comedians across three weeks to take a look back at the first three decades of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with those who were there! Memories were tested, highlights were celebrated and moments of who and what shaped each era were shared.

All live panel sessions were recorded and are available online.

Audiences were invited to hear the history of the Festival directly from the only person who has performance at every single one! The wonderful Rod Quantock OAM treated comedy lovers with three guided tours of the exhibition across.

over 20,000 people attended

special 30th anniversary

events

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festival highlights

FREE FAMILY OUTDOOR PROGRAM Free-flowing family fun featuring the best and most unpredictable street performers from the world’s stage, The (Very) Big Laugh Out brings comedy, circus and all manner of curiosities to Fed Square and City Square for an action-packed – and FREE – program of sheer fun and frivolity.

In 2016 the free family outdoor program ran at City Square every day of the Festival (excluding Mondays) throughout the two-week school holiday period, with showcases on the Fed Square Main Stage Fridays and weekends. THE (VERY) BIG LAUGH OUT PROGRAM

•! 53 free performances •! 20 artists / groups from Australia, France, Italy, USA, Belgium and South

Korea •! over 100,000 attendees

LATE NIGHTS AT THE FESTIVAL CLUB An absolute must for comedy fans and party-goers, six nights a week late into the night, the very best local and international performers hit the stage and let loose to create some of the most memorable moments of the Festival!

In 2016 6,699 people attended The Festival Club at Max Watt’s (formerly the Hi-Fi Bar) to enjoy guest spots from over 170 different comedians and Festival acts.

Around 30% of Festival audience have one or more children living at home – a quarter of these children are under 12

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festival highlights continued

WINNERS ARE GRINNERS From the Barry Award for the most Outstanding Show of the Festival to the Funny Tonne Award for one comedy super fan attending more shows than you would think is humanly possible, the Festival Awards continues to be a celebration for artists and audience alike.

Winners included: Zoe Coombs Marr (Barry Award & Golden Gibbo), Tom Walker (Best Newcomer), Tom Ballard (inaugural Pinder Prize), Chris Wainhouse (Piece of Wood Award), True Aussie Patriots and Zanzoop (Directors' Choice Award), Carl Barron (People's Choice Award) and Jeremy MacPherson (Funny Tonne winner seeing an amazing 164 shows!)

A very special event to announce the 2016 Award nominees was hosted by Barry Humphries at The Famous Spiegeltent.

ROADSHOW For nearly twenty years the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow has home delivered the best of the Festival to towns and cities across Australia. For three months of touring comedy madness, in 2016 the Roadshow crew travelled to 80 communities across Australia, performing just shy of 100 shows and bringing laughs to all corners of the great brown land!

And the party doesn’t stop there, the Roadshow takes to the sky for the Asian leg, showcasing the best in Aussie comedy over 14 shows to audiences in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

over 40 artists toured with the

Roadshow in 2016

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special events Annually the Festival producers a number of special events and highlighted anticipated comedy shows, including:

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL GALA PROUDLY SUPPORTING OXFAM (aired on Network Ten on Monday 21 March and Monday 28 March) – celebrating 21 years of laughter and good will, to date the Festival’s relationship with Oxfam has directly supported in raising around $1.5M in support of Oxfam’s work! Hosted by Celia Pacquola and featuring a stellar line up of 25 acts!

OPENING NIGHT COMEDY ALLSTARS SUPERSHOW (aired on Network Ten on Monday 4 April and Friday 8 April) – Hosted by Peter Helliar, annually the Melbourne Comedy Festival Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow kicks the Festival off with a bang with the finest in comedy from Australia and overseas.

THE GREAT DEBATE (aired on Network Ten on Monday 11 April and Friday 15 April) – moderated by inimitable Barry Humphries, six comedians battled out the 27th annual Great Debate question: Is everyone entitled to an opinion?

UPFRONT – the glamour girls of comedy celebrated their 21st this year, hosted by Geraldine Quinn’s Spandex Ballet and featuring 22 of the best local and internal comedians

COMEDY CLUB FOR KIDS (TV special Stand & Deliver to be aired on ABC Kids later in 2016) - celebrating it’s tenth year in bringing the Easter holiday fun and cheeky lolz to kids aged six to 12!

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special events continuedGuest artists and very special one-time only events – other 2016 Festival produced highlights included: The Festival presented 2016 seasons for over 30 international artists from 14 different countries – including long-time Festival favourites Rich Hall (USA) and David O’Doherty (IRE), new must-sees the ONGALS (South Korea) and James Acaster (UK), international superstars Sarah Millican (UK), Al Murray (UK) and Bridget Everett (USA), Australian debuts from Hal Cruttenden (UK) and newcomers Mae Martin (CAN) and Igor Meerson (RUS), and showcases Headliners (North American line up) and New Order.

Laughter Lunchbox - special performance at University of Melbourne.

Good Game LIVE (a return of the Festival’s live special event for the ABC2 hit show).

First Dog on the Moon (Australian politics as seen through the eyes of the nation’s most beloved cartoonists).

Special one-off performance from Igor Meerson in Russian.

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industry development a festival… and so much more

RAW COMEDY Australia’s most famous open mic competition continues to unearth comedy’s next big things from workplaces, pubs and backyards across our country. In 2016, more than 800 emerging comedians participated in heats nationally. Danielle Walker from Victoria was the winner at the RAW Comedy National Grand Final at Melbourne Town Hall, hosted by Nazeem Hussain (aired on SBS2 on Sunday 29 May).

CLASS CLOWNS The Festival’s national development program for teens sees professional comedians run crash-course comedy workshops in schools and performing arts centres, workshops designed for teachers, and a national comedy competition. National heats were held to find the best emerging talent to battle it out in the Class Clowns National Grand Final. Held at the Melbourne Town Hall, hosted by 2015 alumni Will McKenna and Ethan Cavanagh, 14 of the nation’s funnies hit the stage for one huge teenage comedy bash with congratulations going to Lauren Duong (ACT).

LOL SQUAD A collaboration between the Festival and The Channel at Arts Centre Melbourne, the LOL Squad are made up of Class Clowns alumni who, together with a range of professional mentors write, act, film and edit original comedy sketches published online. In 2016 this troupe of talented young comedians also presented LOL Squad LIVE as part of the Festival, featuring the nine squad members and newest comedy talent from across Victoria.

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industry development a festival… and so much moreDEADLY FUNNY Shining a spotlight on the newest talent as well as seasoned performers from the world’s oldest living culture, Deadly Funny is Australia’s original Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comedy development program. Heats and workshops were held nationally to expand performance skills, and a huge Festival event combined a dazzling showcase with the competition National Final, won by Jalen Sutcliffe from Queensland. The Deadly Funny National Final and Showcase was hosted by Kevin Kropinyeri.

DEADLY FUNNY KIDS Discovering and supporting the talent of our youngest comics in schools and community around the country, this comedy workshop program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenagers covers joke writing, improvisation and storytelling. While building cultural resilience in our young Indigenous people, it’s also a great stepping-stone into other Comedy Festival development programs. THE COMEDY ZONE

A curated program of the best emerging comedians in the country. The Comedy Zone is a Festival-produced show featuring five of tomorrow’s stars. The 2016 line-up featured Andrew Wolfe (NSW), Jess Perkins (Vic), Pat McCaffrie (SA), Sam Taunton (Vic) and Angus Gordon (Qld), directed by Bob Franklin.

COMEDY ZONE ASIA Returning to the Festival after a jet fuelled debut season in 2015, Comedy Zone Asia brings a handpicked cast of top performers from the region, delivering expert comedy from a range of culturally diverse perspectives. The 2016 line-up featured Sharul Channa (Singapore), Storm Xu (China), Andrew Chu (Hong Kong), GB Labrador (Philippines) and Daniel Fernandes (India). COMEDY CONFAB An industry development program for people serious about their comedy, annually Comedy ConFAB features a number of professional development events, workshops and panels, including Jeez Louise (with Rachel Berger, Kate McLennan & Jess Perkins, presented in collaboration with The Wheeler Centre).

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marketing & media highlights The Festival aims to engage our existing loyal community and actively develop new audiences for comedy. In 2016 the Festival again produced an impactful marketing campaign with a high visibility spread across a broad marketing mix: •! Printed collateral •! Print, online, radio and television advertising •! Outdoor campaigns •! Meaningful audience engagement, and strong

growth, through social channels •! Growth in website functionality and unique users •! Below the line campaigns and cross promotional

partnerships •! Targeted tourism advertising

OUTDOOR The Festival literally painted the town in yellow for its 30th Birthday, with the Festival brand covering flags, venues, streets and transport. The Festival worked with Adshel and Inlink to deliver outdoor advertising campaigns in key target markets Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The Festival’s Melbourne OOH campaign occupied flags and venues across the City of Melbourne, enjoyed a strong presence on Melbourne Airport banners and internal screens, popped up on the Tullamarine and CityLink Freeway and covered the front of Flinders Street Station as well as Melbourne’s trains, trams and taxis.

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marketing & media partnershipsPRINT & ONLINE MEDIA Melbourne International Comedy Festival continued to work with the Herald Sun as principal print media partner in 2016. The partnership included:

•! Distribution of 400,000 Program Guides state-wide across Victoria, as an insert in the Saturday 27 February 2016 edition of the Herald Sun

•! Extensive print and online advertising campaign in the Herald Sun •! Highlight Daily Diaries published during the Festival in the Herald Sun •! Significant digital campaign including dedicated minisite on heraldsun.com.au, an online ad campaign and

ads on the Herald Sun mobile optimised site •! Promotional offers including in-paper and member reward giveaways

TELEVISION The Festival produced a 30-second commercial with partner Clemenger BBDO that screened on Network Ten, ONE HD and Eleven, as well as Foxtel’s The Comedy Channel, in the lead-up to and during the Festival. The Festival’s TVC is also appropriated for the national Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow and available for use by all Roadshow presenters / communities.

Festival content was also broadcast to more than 5 million viewers nationally with programming across the year on Network Ten and TenPlay, SBS2 and SBS On Demand, ABC and iView, Foxtel and Foxtel Go and Channel 31 and C31 Live.

RADIO OUTSIDE BROADCASTS •! ABC 774 – ‘Comedy Bites’ recorded live from The Comedy Theatre on the eve of the Festival, Tuesday 22 March

2016 (state-wide and online broadcast, recording also available via ABC Soundcloud) •! triple j – ‘Good Az Friday’ broadcast live from the Main Hall at Melbourne Town Hall on Good Friday, Friday 25

March 2016. Hosted by Matt Okine and Alex Dyson from the triple j breakfast show (national broadcast). •! Nova 100 – ‘Breakfast with Chrissie, Sam & Browny’ and ‘Nova’s Hits & Giggles’. Nova’s much loved breakfast OB

returned to Melbourne Town Hall in 2016 to kick off the Festival on opening morning, Wednesday 23 March. Showcasing up and coming Festival comedians, Nova also held the listener only free event Hits & Giggles on Saturday 9 April at Melbourne Town Hall, sound bites of the event broadcast the following day on Nova 100 and available via online channels.

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marketing & media highlights online activityThe Festival continues to develop social and online activity to engage and attract domestic and international audiences.WEBSITE ACTIVITY For the period from 1 July 2015 – 30 June 2016 – including the lead-up, pre-sale, launch and 2016 Festival: •! 1,537,065 sessions •! 887,789 unique users (72% of these users also used the website during the Festival period) •! 7.6 million page impressions •! fully optimised website (for desktop, tablet and mobile) •! 60% mobile/tablet users (during the Festival this increases to 65%) •! dedicated ‘Visitors Guide’ on the Festival website with tourism specific information •! 92% visitors from Australia (74% Victoria, 26% interstate) and 8% from overseas

SOCIAL MEDIA The Festival’s social media channels continue to see amazing growth, forming an integral part of the marketing mix, including opportunity to engage with Festival fans outside of Melbourne. At the close of the 2016 Festival:

30,516 likes – up 38% on 2015 25,854 followers – up 9% on 2015 17% from interstate 17% from overseas 5% from regional Victoria 31% from interstate 12% from overseas

12,618 subscribers – up 61% on 2015 5,290 followers – up 106% on 2015 More than 11 million video views (around 49% from international audiences)

E-NEWS The Festival’s e-news continues to be a key channel to communicate with a growing and loyal group of Festival stakeholders. At the close of the 2016 Festival: •! 101,421 subscribers: 91% from Victoria, 8% from interstate and 1% from overseas •! sent weekly in the lead-up, and twice a week throughout the Festival

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partnershipsThe Festival’s partners are an integral part of its success. Thanks to their vision, generosity and great sense of humour the Festival is able to extend its reach into important marketplaces, produce high quality and effective marketing collateral and present a program that is the envy of many Australian and international festivals.

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2017 festival

SAVE THE DATE! The 31st Melbourne International Comedy Festival will run from Wednesday 29 March to Sunday 23 April 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival 240 Exhibition Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000 T +61 3 9245 3700 E info@comedyfestival.com.au W www.comedyfestival.com.au

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