{"id":110364,"date":"2026-01-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/?p=110364"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:32:22","slug":"mini-comedy-festival-primed-for-mid-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/living\/mini-comedy-festival-primed-for-mid-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Mini comedy festival primed for mid-January"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMEDY fans looking for a great night out during the doldrums of the period between New Year’s and Australia Day can look forward to a hard-to-resist gap filler \u2013 the new Bendigo Mini Comedy Festival (16-18 January).<\/p>\n

The program’s debut is an opportunity for local and nationally known comedians to trial new routines destined for a slew of capital city festivals in the first half of 2026, safe in the knowledge that Bendigo audiences are well known for their enthusiastic receptions.<\/p>\n

Organiser and Comedy Victoria lead producer Luke Morris said the concept comes off the back of a hugely successful festival proper last October.<\/p>\n

“It went really well,” he said. “We had our biggest audiences, biggest number of shows and we had to add on extra because so many sold out.<\/p>\n

“Having sold out shows kind of flies in the face of the economy at the moment but people were really happy \u2013 I kept waiting for something to break and nothing did.”<\/p>\n

Mr Morris said the modus operandi of the new festival is to provide as much variety as possible while keeping the entry prices low.<\/p>\n

“You can’t tell people to come and see shows if there’s not something for everyone,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some of the acts are bringing all their best jokes from the year of writing.<\/p>\n

“If you’re a nudist, there’s a (comedian) who’s going to perform nude.<\/p>\n

“If you’re into storytelling you’ve got Simon Taylor, who’s been all around the world.<\/p>\n

“Then you’ve got Danny McGinlay, who’s basically going to do an hour of crowd work and he’s excellent.<\/p>\n

“Different acts, different ways of approaching comedy.”<\/p>\n

Mr Morris said there’s plenty of reasons why ticket prices can be kept reasonable.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got to thank the volunteers for their support to be able to do that and the venues too,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The artists are also aware that you can’t keep putting the prices up (even though) coming to Bendigo isn’t free petrol and isn’t free accommodation.”<\/p>\n

While this is the first time around for the abbreviated festival, there’s hopes it will be ongoing.<\/p>\n

“We’ve built up enough of a reputation that people know that (our events) are worth putting the money towards \u2013 they’re going to be good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The end goal is for people to liken us to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.<\/p>\n

“It used to be, ‘oh it’s at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, it must be good’. We want people to think, ‘it’s at the Bendigo Comedy Festival, it must be good’.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to maintain a high quality because trust is more important than ever. There’s a lot out there trying to get people’s attention so you never want to let your audience down.”<\/p>\n

The Bendigo Mini Comedy Festival takes place from 16 to 18 January.<\/p>\n

Find out more on the Bendigo Comedy Festival website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COMEDY fans looking for a great night out during the doldrums of the period between New Year’s and Australia Day can look forward to a hard-to-resist gap filler \u2013 the new Bendigo Mini Comedy Festival (16-18 January). The program’s debut is an opportunity for local and nationally known comedians to trial new routines destined for […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":110372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-110364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMini comedy festival primed for mid-January - Bendigo Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Laugh out loud at the Bendigo Comedy Festival, 16\u201318 Jan, featuring local and national acts in an affordable, fun-filled program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/living\/mini-comedy-festival-primed-for-mid-january\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mini comedy festival primed for mid-January - 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