After scouring Australia’s secondary schools for comedic talent, the final thirteen acts in the Class Clowns competition were at the Melbourne Town Hall to do battle. The winner would take away a cash prize as well as cash for their school (just like in those kids game shows that populate afternoon TV).
Our host Michael Chamberlin got the predominately young crowd (many schools had bused in groups) warmed up with his cleanest material and soon the competition was under way.
First up was Jack Hose from Darwin. Jack did some great material about his interaction with girls and some stuff about school. He incorporated a bit of character work in his portrayal of his teachers and ended with a sight gag involving a trip to the RSL and a slogan on his shirt.
Next up, we were introduced to the very young looking Luke Middleton from Brisbane. He was definitely the front runner in the cuteness stakes! The majority of his gear revolved around moments of mistaken identity due to his young looks as well as a segment on school tuck shops.
The first of two female contestants, Emmalee Meilsels took to the stage next. She performed a wonderful set about trying to hide a Discman during class and her slightly creepy English teacher. A bit about her job teaching dance to four year olds provided the opportunity for a bit of comical dancing.
A duo entitled “A Lesson In Morals” (Andrew Readman and Chris Morecroft from Adelaide) put on a highly physical act that told the tale of a camping trip. A little acrobatics and a hilarious sequence about limbless driving were included. The story then deteriorated into some silly stuff about a zombie apocalypse.
Local guy Mitch Lia was next up and did a solid set which included a fantastic bit about a speeding cyclone.
Hailing from Tennant Creek, Dankee Tinyee did a spot that focused on his quiet hometown and it’s characters. Taking advantage of the relaxed content rules of the competition, he slipped in a dodgy Michael Jackson reference.
David Bakker from Launceston hit the stage and played a hilarious song on his guitar about a girl with unfortunate looks. The inventive descriptions used for various parts of her body were brilliant.
Next up was Jack Druce from Woolongong who treated us to some fine word play revolving around the collective nouns of animals.
Local boy and protég of Rod Quantock, Adam Knox gave us a polished set about career options and his issues with some of them. Throwing a bit of deconstruction about his performance into the mix, Adam kept us laughing.
Our second lady for the afternoon, Hannah Malarski of Hobart, gave us some outstanding mimicry of Sir David Attenborough and Peter Cundall from Gardening Australia. The majority of her time was spent recounting tales of being a chunky kid when she was younger which went down a treat. All the way from Perth, Stuart Harper presented a clever and well executed bit that translated a piece of “Teenage Poetry” into English (quite useful for us Old Codgers). The remainder of his set was based on his talent for inventing things, or more accurately his naming skills.
The penultimate act for the afternoon was local boy Dylan Cole who started with a hilarious bit on relating his birth certificate with other achievement awards. He also included plenty of puns (ala Mark Pengilly) and ended a number of his jokes with the threat of cricket bat violence.
Rounding out today’s competition was a trio from our nation’s capital called “M to the Acbeth” (James Stevenson, Ben Stevenson and Michael Byrne). As hinted at by their name, they performed an awesome hip hop retelling of Macbeth. There was a constant stream of clever references to the play as well as a brilliant quiet piece ala Eminem’s Dido sample. They did this all acappela and even did the obvious innuendo device of approaching an easily telegraphed filthy rhyme and substituting at the last moment.
As the judges retired backstage to deliberate, Charlie Pickering took to the stage to perform an except from his show that told some tales about his school days. Charlie seemed to have a little trouble keeping it clean as he stopped himself a couple of times when he thought through the content of some bits.
Following Charlie’s spot, Michael returned to announce the winner. Three runner up places were given to Jack Druce, Hannah Malarski and Dylan Cole. The winner of the competition was deemed to be Adam Knox who was presented with a giant novelty check and a trophy.
The Class Clowns competition showed that there was a great source of comedic talent in our schools with all the contestants being of a high quality. These are definitely some names to keep an eye out for in the future.