Comedy Contest: Where to Enter, What Judges Score, and What Wins
A comedy contest in 2026 is open through the Texas Thespians Stand-Up Comedy Challenge, which takes video entries through its submission page before the festival. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs RAW Comedy, an open-mic competition, and registrations for its 2027 series, together with Class Clowns, open later in 2026. Entry routes differ: some organisers collect recordings in advance, others score the live set directly, and the criteria are published before you enter.
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Who runs a comedy contest and what it demands
A comedy contest is not one format but several, and the organiser decides which one you are walking into. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival operates the clearest ladder in the English-speaking scene: RAW Comedy for open-mic comics, Class Clowns for secondary-school students, and Deadly Funny for First Nations talent. Each program publishes its own entry window on the festival's participation pages. Registrations for the 2027 series of all three open later in 2026, so the date to watch is the organiser's announcement, not a rumour.
The demands are refreshingly small on paper. Deadly Funny states the whole requirement in one line: five minutes of funny material, with participation free. That brevity is the point. An open-mic competition removes every barrier except the material, which means the material carries the entire result. A school program such as Class Clowns works through schools, so a student entrant arranges participation with their guardian and the school rather than filing a solo application. Read which of these three doors applies to you before writing a single minute of new material.
- RAW Comedy: open-mic sets, run nationally by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
- Deadly Funny: the festival's national competition for First Nations talent, open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over eighteen.
- Class Clowns: a national program for secondary-school students in Years 9 to 12.
- Deadly Funny participation is free to enter, and the stated requirement is five minutes of material.
Entries open now and later this year
Two entry styles dominate, and they reward different preparation. The recorded style, used by Texas Thespians for its Stand-Up Comedy Challenge, asks for a video of the routine submitted before the festival, with a written transcript alongside it. That means the camera is your first audience: the set must be complete, timed and performable to a lens months before anyone claps. The live style, used by RAW Comedy and by city competitions, scores the room on the night, so rehearsal happens at open nights rather than in front of a tripod.
Timing matters more than talent at the entry stage, because a closed window ends everything. The Texas Thespians page names its own submission route and its deadline sits before the festival, not during it. The Melbourne festival names its registration opening for later in 2026. Mark both, then check the organiser's page again close to the date, since windows move. A missed registration cannot be argued back open, and no amount of prepared material compensates for it.
- Texas Thespians accepts 2026 Stand-Up Comedy Challenge entries through its Submittable submission page.
- That challenge requires a video of the routine before the festival, plus a written transcript.
- Melbourne festival registrations for the 2027 programs open later in 2026.
- Local competitions such as Madison's Funniest Comic run on their own city calendars.
How judges score a set
Scorecards differ, but they circle the same few measures. Madison Comedy publishes its arithmetic openly: sixty percent panel judging, forty percent crowd voting, with each audience member holding one ballot from the start of the night. The clock is enforced just as openly. Thirty seconds over or under draws a points deduction; a full minute draws immediate disqualification. That single rule ends more first-round hopes than any joke ever did, and it is entirely avoidable with a stopwatch.
The World Series of Comedy breaks its judging into named questions. Originality asks whether the jokes have been heard before from another comic. Stage presence asks whether the comic seemed comfortable and whether they talked to the entire room, not just the front rows. Overall performance, worth ten points, asks whether the audience liked the set and whether the comic went over time. Ladies of Laughter compresses the same ideas into a panel format: audience response, originality and presentation, judged by people from industry, media and sponsors. Every one of these is published before the set, which means every one can be rehearsed against.
- Madison's Funniest Comic Competition: judging weighs sixty percent panel and forty percent crowd voting.
- Each crowd member receives one ballot at the start of the night and turns it in after all comics perform.
- Thirty seconds over or under the allotted time costs points there; a full minute over or under means immediate disqualification.
- The World Series of Comedy scores originality by asking whether the jokes were heard before from another comic.
- Ladies of Laughter bases judging on audience response, originality and presentation by an industry and media panel.
Improving your chances of a win
Improving your odds in a comedy contest is mostly eliminating the losses you control. The clock is the clearest case: Madison's published deduction and disqualification thresholds mean an overrunning set can lose before quality is even discussed. Time the set in rehearsal conditions, then time it again on the night. The second clearest is originality, which The World Series of Comedy scores by asking a blunt question about whether the jokes have been heard before. Material borrowed from the scene scores zero there by definition.
Crowd-weighted formats add a second lever. Where forty percent of the result is a room ballot, the comics who fill the room with friends hold a real advantage, and that is a published mechanic, not cynicism. In Madison's format the ballots are handed out at the start and collected after everyone performs, so a supporter who leaves early forfeits their say. None of this replaces the material. It simply means the strategy begins with the scorecard, and the scorecard is public.
- Rehearse with a stopwatch until the set lands inside the limit with seconds to spare.
- Cut or rewrite anything a judge could have heard from another comic.
- Practise playing to the back of the room, because judges score whether the whole room was addressed.
- Build crowd rounds into the plan where the organiser uses them: bring people who will stay for every comic, not just yours.
- Read the criteria sheet before writing, so the material targets what is scored.
The joke contest inside Baldur's Gate 3
The joke contest in BG3 is a different animal from the live events above, and it is worth saying plainly how. There is no panel scoring originality, no crowd ballot, no stopwatch with disqualification thresholds. The scene is written in advance, so a win comes from choosing the option the script treats as the strong one and delivering it with commitment. The useful overlap with live comedy is attitude: the committed, unhedged delivery a live judge scores as stage presence is the same read the scene responds to.
The honest limit is that the live-contest documents behind this page describe real-world competitions, not the game scene, so the specifics of that scene belong to the game itself. What this page can state is what does not work: nothing an outside service offers changes a scripted outcome, and no trick adjusts what the writers already fixed. Treat the BG3 contest as a performance beat and the live contests as a craft, and neither one misleads you about the other.
- The BG3 scene is scripted: the outcome follows the option the writing rewards.
- What transfers from live competition is commitment, the full-performance read the scene praises.
- What does not transfer is clock enforcement, ballots and judge panels.
- No outside action changes what the scene's script has already decided.
What to prepare before you enter
Preparation starts with the rulebook, not the material, because the rulebook decides what the material must be. Deadly Funny names five minutes and nothing else. Texas Thespians names a video of the routine plus a written transcript, submitted before the festival through its own page. A live open-mic format names a registration window. Each of these is a different deliverable, and building the wrong one wastes the weeks you have. Read the criteria sheet first, then write toward it.
Confirm eligibility before investing effort. Age lines vary by program: Class Clowns serves secondary-school students, Deadly Funny serves adults over eighteen, and a school entrant arranges entry with a guardian. Local competitions can carry residency conditions, and those live on the organiser's page. One more habit separates prepared entrants from surprised ones: check how the winner will be decided before entering, since a panel-scored night and a crowd-ballot night ask for different sets from the same five minutes.
- The organiser's own entry page, read in full, is the first thing to prepare.
- A set rehearsed to the stated time limit, with a margin.
- A recording and transcript where the organiser asks for them.
- Confirmation of who may enter, including any age line and who signs for a minor.
The honest limits of entering
Nothing on this page promises a result, and that is the correct reading of the evidence. Judges apply their own published criteria, and a panel can weigh two strong sets differently on the same night. Crowd-ballot rounds reward whoever moves a room, which includes factors no routine controls. Any third party offering to inflate a result is selling outside the scorecard: organisers watch for it, platforms treat it as a rule breach, and disqualification is the published consequence. The only inputs that count are the ones the criteria sheet names.
There is a gap worth naming in subject words, because it recurs across every organiser here. Most rulebooks state what is scored but not how ties are broken, not how late entries are handled, and not what happens when a registration system fails on deadline day. Those answers belong to the organiser alone, and the only reliable source is the organiser's own page or a direct question to them. Everything else on this page, from the sixty-forty split to the disqualification minute, is published and therefore rehearsable.
- No entry method guarantees a win, and any service claiming otherwise is selling something the scorecard does not recognise.
- The organiser decides the criteria, the deadline and the disqualification rules.
- Where crowd voting counts, the room decides part of the result, and that part is not judged on craft.
- A rule the organiser has not published cannot be answered in advance.
| Contest | Organiser | Entry route | How it is judged |
|---|---|---|---|
| RAW Comedy | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Registration, then live open-mic sets | Live open-mic judging |
| Deadly Funny | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Free entry, five minutes of material | not published |
| Class Clowns | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | School registration, Years 9 to 12 | not published |
| Stand-Up Comedy Challenge | Texas Thespians | Video and transcript before the festival | not published |
| Madison's Funniest Comic | Madison Comedy | Local competition entry | Sixty percent panel, forty percent crowd ballots |
| World Series of Comedy | The World Series of Comedy | not published | Originality, stage presence, overall performance |
| Ladies of Laughter | Ladies of Laughter | not published | Audience response, originality, panel presentation |
Step by step
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Read the organiser's entry page
Find the organiser's own participation or submission page and read every line before writing material. Texas Thespians names its submission route and its pre-festival deadline there; the Melbourne International Comedy Festival names its registration openings. The page decides everything that follows.
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Confirm you fit the rules
Check the age line and who must sign. Class Clowns serves secondary-school students, so a young entrant arranges entry through their school and guardian. Deadly Funny is open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over eighteen. Eligibility missed at this stage costs the whole cycle.
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Build five original minutes
Write to the stated time and cut anything a judge could have heard from another comic, since originality is scored directly. Five tight minutes beat ten loose ones in every format described here, and the shorter set leaves margin against the clock.
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Record to the stated format
Where the organiser asks for a recording, as Texas Thespians does with a routine video and a written transcript, deliver exactly that through the organiser's own submission page. Do not substitute a live link, a different length or an unlisted format for the stated one.
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Rehearse against the clock
Time the set repeatedly under performance conditions. Madison's Funniest Comic Competition deducts points at thirty seconds over or under and disqualifies at a full minute, and The World Series of Comedy scores going over time. The stopwatch is the cheapest judging advantage available.
Questions
How do you win the comedy contest in BG3?
The scene is judged by the game's script, not by a panel, so a win comes from the option the writing rewards rather than from material you bring yourself. The live-contest lessons that transfer are commitment and timing: the delivery the scene praises is the same committed delivery a live judge scores. Crowd ballots and clock deductions do not apply, because nothing in the scene is counted that way. Treat it as a scripted beat and pick accordingly.
How do you win the joke contest in BG3?
You win the joke contest by working with the script rather than against it. Unlike a live comedy contest, there is no judge's scorecard and no audience ballot to court; the scene rewards the choice the writers built as the strong one. What carries over from live competition is nerve. The delivery that lands on stage, full commitment to the bit without hedging, is the same read the scene responds to. Nothing outside the scene changes the outcome.
First comedy contest. Advice?
Enter with five tight minutes rather than ten loose ones, and time the set against the organiser's stated limit before the night. Madison's Funniest Comic Competition deducts points at thirty seconds over or under and disqualifies at a full minute, so clock discipline alone can decide a first-round result. Original material matters: The World Series of Comedy asks plainly whether the jokes have been heard before from another comic. Talk to the entire room, not the friendly front row.
Who can enter RAW Comedy?
RAW Comedy is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's open-mic competition, and the festival describes it as Australia's largest and most celebrated open-mic contest. The festival also runs Deadly Funny, a separate national competition open specifically to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over eighteen. Registration windows are published on the festival's participation pages, and registrations for the 2027 series open later in 2026, so check the organiser rather than assuming a rolling entry.
What do I need for the show and to enter?
The requirements are the organiser's, and the rulebook states them. Deadly Funny asks for five minutes of funny material and nothing more. Texas Thespians requires Stand-Up Comedy Challenge participants to submit a video of their routine before the festival, alongside a written transcript, through its submission page. Live open-mic formats need a set rehearsed to the stated time. Read the entry page first; the requirements are named there and nowhere else.
Do I need stage experience before entering?
No organiser named here requires prior stage experience as an entry condition, and open-mic formats exist precisely to surface new comics. What the judging criteria do measure is how the set lands: The World Series of Comedy scores whether a comic seemed comfortable on stage and addressed the whole room, which is a skill you build in rehearsal and at open nights. Entry rules gate eligibility; comfort is scored, not demanded. Enter when your five minutes hold the clock.
What should I do to prepare?
Prepare against the published criteria, and prepare in this order. Write to the time limit and rehearse with a stopwatch, because both Madison's Funniest Comic Competition and The World Series of Comedy penalise running long. Cut anything a judge could have heard from another comic, since originality is scored directly. Rehearse addressing the whole room. Then complete the entry exactly as the organiser specifies, whether that is a registration, a video with a transcript, or five minutes of material.
What are the judges looking for?
The published scorecards name three things repeatedly. Originality: The World Series of Comedy judges it by asking whether the jokes have been heard before from another comic. Stage presence: the same organisation scores comfort on stage and whether the comic talked to the entire room. Audience response: Ladies of Laughter bases judging on audience reaction, originality and presentation by a panel drawn from industry and media. Overall performance and staying inside the time close the card.
Sources
- comedyfestival.com.au. comedyfestival.com.au/festival-programs/raw-comedy/.
- comedyfestival.com.au. comedyfestival.com.au/deadly-funny/.
- madisoncomedy.com. madisoncomedy.com/wp-content/uploads/26MFCC-Criteria-Sheet1.pdf.
- theworldseriesofcomedy.com. theworldseriesofcomedy.com/judging.
This page cannot promise a win, does not sell votes, and never explains ways around a platform's rules. It does not quote prices or currency amounts. No entry method changes what judges score or what a crowd ballot records, and the organiser's published criteria decide everything described here. Where a rulebook is silent, the page says so rather than guessing.
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