2025 Class Clowns National Grand Final Crowns Brisbane Teen Leonardo Murrieta-Lagos

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s comedy development program for young people – Class Clowns – plays a crucial role in fostering and nurturing the next generation of comedians. For the last two months, heats have been taking place around the country.

At the National Grand Final event hosted by Sez, eleven finalists took to the stage in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts – performing stand-up, sketch and parody for their chance to be crowned the funniest teen (or teens) in the country.

Sixteen-year-old Leonardo Murrieta-Lagos from The Gap State School in Brisbane was awarded the winner of the 29th annual Class Clowns National Grand Final. As the winner, Leonardo walks away with a prize of $1,500, a $1,000 workshop package for their school, plus the Class Clowns trophy.

Comedian Harry Jun, who was on the judging panel:

it’s great to see young people put out such original, funny and relatable material. It’s really inspiring to see – as a comic working now – the next generation.

Runners-up who were also given kudos by the judges include Tiglath Chibo from Viewbank College in Melbourne and Rebecca Elphicke from Canberra College in Canberra.

Class Clowns is one of the development programs run by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Each year, the program helps hundreds of young people develop their comedy potential and cultivate the next generation of funny people as well as new and unique voices.

More than just a competition, the Class Clowns program gives participants from years 9-12 access to professional comedians as mentors, taking part in workshops and performing in front of live audience at a local, state and national level.

Class Clowns alumni include Josh Thomas (Please Like Me, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), Annie Louey (radio announcer), William McKenna (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Aaron Chen (Fisk, 2017 Best Newcomer Award,2019 Directors’ Choice Award & 2024 People’s Choice Award winner at Melbourne International Comedy Festival) and Rhys Nicholson (RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under and Most Outstanding Award winner at Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2022).

Programs like Class Clowns are vitally important because they not only help young comedians develop their performance and writing skills, but workshops also support the growth of self-confidence and social skills, develop future audiences for the arts, promote diversity, and provide the tools, confidence, and opportunities for the next wave of performers to succeed.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s other development programs include RAW Comedy and Deadly Funny.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs from 26 March – 20 April. For more informationand to buy tickets, visit comedyfestival.com.au

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