Newcastle Comedy Festival is returning in 2024 with a new logo, new venues and a who's who of comedic talent.
It's all happening from June 28 to July 21. The Gala Night will be held at the Civic Theatre on June 29.
Kirsty Webeck, Nazeem Hussain, Rhys Nicholson, Nick Capper, Daniel Muggleton, Cameron James and Melanie Bracewell are on this year's festival line-up. More names will be announced in the coming weeks.
Festival organiser Andrew Milos, of Big Dog Comedy, says the festival website (newycomedyfest.com) will be live on Monday, January 15, where you can sign up for presale access to tickets.
"We're doing around 30 shows in total this year: at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music for the first time, the Civic Theatre, The Playhouse and at Newcastle Comedy Club," he said.
"The Conservatorium has 330 seats and is a bigger space for solo shows, with great acoustics."
When deciding on a line-up for each festival he looks for the comedians who won awards the previous year, or were nominated for awards.
"They're the ones I head hunt, to enable people to see these comedians at home in Newcastle instead of travelling to Sydney or Melbourne," Milos said.
"This festival is about bringing the top tier acts, the circuit comics, the ones that are literally gigging 200 times a year, to Newcastle.
"There's a bunch of comedy festivals on around Australia throughout the year; you've got Perth which is just starting this month, Adelaide in February, March is the big one in Melbourne, then it's Sydney and Brisbane and smaller ones like Canberra.
"Newcastle is the last stop. By the time they come to Newcastle to do their show, it is literally the best version of that show. They would have performed that solo show close to 50 times by that stage."
He's excited about Nazeem Hussain being on the line-up for the first time, and sings the praises of both Melanie Bracewell and Cameron James.
"Cameron is a Newcastle boy who has been going from strength to strength," he said.
"He won best Sydney Comedy Festival show last year and was nominated for best show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, which is huge for a Newcastle artist.
"It's never been done before."
