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The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is held each April in a number of venues across Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
MICF is an important event on the Australian cultural calendar. Since its inception in 1987 the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has grown to be the third largest in the world, along with the Edinburgh Fringe and Montreal Just for Laughs Festivals. The Melbourne Town Hall, on the corner of Swanston and Collins Streets is the central hub of activity for the duration of the festival, but other venues are scattered throughout the Central Business District and inner city suburbs.
At its heart, the festival consists of shows from a variety of national and international comedians. Over the years, these have included Dave Gorman, Julian Clary, Ross Noble, Wil Anderson,Paul McDermott, Arj Barker and Henry Rollins.
In its early years, the MICF invited special guests of International repute. The very first was the British comedian, Peter Cook, whose participation is commemorated in the name given to the temporary bar that is set up in the Town Hall each year.
The festival also consists of several other annual events. Raw Comedy is a nationwide competition for amateur comedians. The finalists perform their material in front of a live audience, which is then recorded and broadcast on Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC. Since 1994, the festival has produced Upfront, a night featuring the best of Australia's female comedians. This is also usually broadcast. Perhaps the centrepiece of these, however, is the annual Gala, which is televised to a prime-time national audience, and features many of the comedians to perform that year.
In addition to these, the MICF also sponsors Class Clowns, a competition to find the funniest secondary school student. A newer addition is The Roadshow, which sees a number of comedians tour around regional centres where people may not have had the opportunity to visit the festival itself.
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