Meet the team behind the Canberra Comedy Festival
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It’s the biggest comedy event in Canberra – but how did the Canberra Comedy Festival begin?
Going from strength to strength, year after year, we decided to sit down with some of the funniest people in Canberra to find out the origin story of the Canberra Comedy Festival and how they conned* some of the world’s best comedians to come to our local stages.
*Kidding. Or are we? Read on to find out…
Who is behind the Canberra Comedy Festival and how did you all meet?
Tim Duck: There are five of us. Benjamin Stevenson, James Stevenson, David Graham, Patrick Hornby, and myself. I would like to say we met in a car park after answering an ad in the paper seeking people to start a comedy revolution. But it was a bit more obvious than that.
Benjamin Stevenson: We were all hanging around venues like the Front Café, PJ O’Reilly’s and the Civic Pub where there was a collective of people putting on comedy nights back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. We were entertaining ourselves telling jokes and hustling friends to come along and buy a drink and hear all the same jokes again. We weren’t quite revolutionaries at that stage, but we were learning how to put on a show.
Do you all have a background in comedy? If not, what drew you to the industry?
Tim Duck: I would like to think we can all say we have a background in comedy after doing 10 festivals. It is not a full-time gig though. We all bring different skills. I originally got involved with the local comedy scene through being asked by a friend, Jay Sullivan (Jay was a great local comedian and one of the founders of the festival), to do live sound for shows, and then made a network of friends and the rest is history.
Benjamin Stevenson: I am still a working stand-up comedian, performing with my twin brother James as The Stevenson Experience. We started comedy 20 years ago in Canberra. After touring to the Melbourne Comedy Festival I was struck with a “why don’t we have something like that here?” and we were off!
James Stevenson: What my brother said…
David Graham: I was always the funny guy at work and was a massive fan of stand-up. I decided to go do it at an open mic and I was quickly welcomed into the scene. Tim Duck was running the Civic Pub Comedy Club at that stage which was the pro gig in town. I would help him pack up his sound to see if I could get a spot – not always. I quickly gravitated to the organising side of the scene and found that running the gigs came naturally. I was in the right place at the right time when the team formed. My full time job IT skills also have come in handy. Better than being a lawyer…
Patrick Hornby: I’m a lawyer. I think my role is pretty much just to make sure we don’t do something that gets us “cancelled”. Mainly we’re guarding against anything Dave did or said on stage in the early days. While lawyering is my job, I’m here because I actually like being around people who find the line and tease that they are about to cross it. That’s comedy.
Where did the idea for the Canberra Comedy Festival come from?
TD: At one point I thought it was disappointing that so few comedians presented their shows in Canberra. They were touring to the festivals in other capital cities, so I thought we should change that. Not long after I found out that starting a comedy festival in Canberra was not an original idea, as others had thought the same thing, so we pulled a team together from interested parties from the local scene.
PH: Credit goes to Tim for keeping all the ‘interested parties’ together over the years too. He takes us away for a weekend once a year in the Southern Highlands and treats us nice. We drink the sponsors products, play a lot of 500 and keep coming up with new ideas. Some of them we remember the next morning.
Tell me about the process of creating and launching the festival — how long did it take and what was the biggest challenge?
TD: We started with modest goals for the original 2013 festival, but then after speaking with Events ACT and obtaining some funding, we stepped things up with our programming team booking in Akmal, Stephen K Amos, Tripod and more to perform at our inaugural festival. That festival sold out most shows and proved that the audience for a comedy festival was here in Canberra so we have built from there.
The biggest challenge along the way was COVID. It hit bang on our festival dates, with restrictions on event sizes kicking in on the first day of our festival in 2020. No one knew what it was going to bring and so there were challenges working through arrangements with venues, artists etc. We got so busy that we didn’t have time to stock up on toilet paper like everyone else.
Tell me something that people might not know about the Canberra Comedy Festival.
DG: Not everyone would know that the festival is run by the five us with support from our families, people in the Canberra comedy community, volunteers and local businesses. We make the magic happen on top of our day jobs and busy lives. We can be found putting up roadside sign in business suits, carting giant glow in the dark balls to the Canberra Theatre from our garages, hauling the printed programs to local businesses, and picking up superstar comedians from the airport and putting them in the back of a car next to a child seat full of raisins and a squeezy yoghurt. It is all worth it when we see the artists take to the stage and hear the laughter from the crowd.
JS: The hands on approach is one of the reasons that the comedians say it is one of their favourite festivals on the tour. They’re happy to hang out after the shows and drop in for a set at the late night festival club after they’ve already done their own shows. We give them lots of liquor which helps too.
What has it been like watching the festival grow and evolve over the years?
BS: It’s been incredible watching the response and the growth, from our very first festival which saw us hire one 300 seat theatre for a few shows, to now regularly hosting some of the biggest names in comedy at Canberra’s biggest venues. Not only have we seen growth in terms of audience, but in terms of comedians too – they love playing Canberra and our clever, responsive audiences. Because of that we’ve been able to do really special shows.
In previous years, The Doug Anthony All Stars reunited for the first time at our festival, Aunty Donna did a week long residency as they crafted a new show, and we were one of the first to see Hannah Gadsby’s incredible Nanette. We have had artists perform their first shows in tiny pub rooms and they now play the Canberra Theatre.
What has been the biggest ‘pinch me’ moment?
JS: We’ve had a lot of firsts at our festival – the first time our Gala played in the Canberra Theatre, every time we introduce a new concept (Festival Club, our Very Canberra Comedy Festival Christmas show, our first Debate) – but every year, once the festival starts rolling, there is a moment where I just stand back and see thousands of people pouring out of and into venues and bars and restaurants and think that it’s amazing that this is something our city gets to have.
Why do you think the Canberra Comedy Festival has become so popular?
TD: It is definitely popular. The first festival in 2013 had 4,300 attendees. In 2024 our attendance was over 22,000! Honestly, people just want to laugh. And they want to laugh at all sorts of stuff. Some want jokes that require you to be a bit brainy. Some just want to laugh at rude jokes they don’t have to think about. And that’s okay! We have a pretty diverse program. There is a comedian for everyone.
DG: I also think comedy is a medium that offers greater artistic freedom for expression around the artist’s race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic background and their physical and mental health. They can talk about subjects that are often taboo. There are audiences searching for that content because they relate to it or want to be informed. And they can do it while being given permission to laugh.
What does the future of the Canberra Comedy Festival look like?
BS: In the next few months it looks like the 2025 Canberra Comedy Festival which is shaping up to be another bumper program full of international, national and our great local comedians. Our Christmas show is on Friday 6 December at the Canberra Theatre, which is when we officially announce our full program. Early birds will have noticed that we have the incredible Guy Montgomery on sale early, who has already sold out one show and added another, and there is a literal tsunami of great acts we are excited to announce.
PH: We are very lucky to have great support from organisations and businesses like the ACT Government, the Theatres, Novotel Canberra, BentSpoke Brewing and Contentious Character Wines. Her Canberra too. We remember you got started around the same time we did. We appreciate being able to collaborate with people who have worked hard to bring an idea to life and make it a Canberra institution. A bit like us! We want to continue to keep that kind of energy around the festival.
JS: As for the future, that’s up to you Canberra! Come out and buy some tickets and we will put on more and more shows in years to come. We welcome ideas too! If anyone has suggestions for what they would like to see from the festival team you can message us via the website.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
PH: The five of us hooked up many years ago and that resulted in the birth of a festival that we love and adore, but it has taken a village to raise it. We would like to thank our army of pink shirted volunteers who come out to look after all the Canberrans that show up for a good time.
DG: Also, a special shout out to Ayla Marika (visual branding and graphic design), Craig Harvey (another IT guy), Jack Rankin (sound tech guy) and Joe Kinnish (30 extra pairs of hands) who bring amazing skills to help the five of us out. There are many more that deserve credit over the journey. But most of all a big thank you to audiences who give us the reason to put on the festival. We could not do it without you! That would be weird!
