(Updated July 3, 2025) Not all rooms are ‘open mic’. Many are curated, meaning you need to have your name ‘on the bill’ days or even weeks before getting up. So reach out (probably via Facebook) before popping down to the following comedy rooms and expecting to perform your ‘tight five‘. Or better still, create your own open mic comedy …
Every industry has its jargon. Australian stand-up comedy is no different. For those new to stand-up, or for those visiting Australia, here’s a stand-up comedy glossary that will help you on the stand-up comedy circuit. A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T V W Is something missing? Add your …
After nine years, and 700 graduates we can report our findings. There’s three types of people who want to learn stand-up comedy and enrol in our monthly courses. Each have very different goals, and levels of experience, but all share an interest in making others laugh. “So who are they?”, you ask. Those that want to be a stand-up comedian, …
The Hard Knock Knocks comedy school is now in its ninth year. Since it’s founding in 2016, over 700 bucket list tickers, key note speakers and comedians of the future have completed our five night comedy course. Many graduates have gone on to win comedy competitions, including Raw Comedy, and even become full time professional comedians. With so many alumni, …
How do you remember stand-up comedy? You know each joke by heart. You’ve practiced a hundred times. But still, there you are, staring at the sea of faces from the stage, with a metaphorical tumbleweed rolling through your head. Crap! You’ve got an acute case of stage fright. Stand-up comedian and Hard Knock Knocks co-founder, Ben Horowitz, knows the feeling. As …
Across all of his social media platforms Australian comedian Reuben Solo has over 800,000 followers. His Instagram sits at 235,000 followers, YouTube at 19,000 subscribers and over 560,000 followers on TikTok. He chooses not to be on Facebook. He’s Gen Z after all. Reuben has attracted this enormous following by filming skits, where he often plays all the characters. To …
Generating ideas for stand-up comedy is difficult at the best of times. Just about any topic is open game, but that freedom doesn’t make joke writing easier. If anything, the brain needs constraint to help focus the creative muscle. Here’s four constraints that we use at the Hard Knock Knocks comedy school to help our students generate ideas for stand-up …
Are you thinking to enter Raw Comedy 2025? Registrations are now open, so click here. Got no idea what Raw Comedy is? Well, what you should know is that Raw Comedy is Australia’s largest amateur comedy competition for, well, raw comedians. And by ‘raw’ the competition’s organisers mean you’ve not earned more than $500 total from comedy – ever. In …
Developing your comedy career requires a commitment to stage time. The Hard Knock Knocks comedy school is first to say rehearsal is vital to a successful comedy career. That’s why we encourage our graduates to produce their own comedy rooms. So what’s the difference between open mic and curated comedy rooms, and just as importantly, how do you get gigs? …
