Flagship comedy festival says its performers do not ‘punch down’

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is facing ‘huge financial challenges’ as the flagship event’s director says participating comedians are expected to be ‘respectful and kind’.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival director Susan Provan with comedian Nath Valvo.

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The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is facing “huge financial challenges”, as the flagship event’s director says participating comedians are expected to be “respectful and kind”.

MICF director Susan Provan outlined the serious financial woes facing the festival – the world’s biggest comedy bash – warning that it was “going to have to scale back if we do not find some other income sources’’.

While insisting the local scene included “comedians across the (political) spectrum’’, the head of the nation’s largest ticketed cultural event was unable to name a conservative comedian working on the Australian circuit.

She said most comedians who took part in the festival believed they should never “punch down” and that “if you’ve got to punch, punch up’’.

The festival recorded deficits in 2024 and 2023 and Provan attributed its economic challenges to rising production costs and stagnant government funding.

“We are facing huge financial challenges at the moment because the costs of mounting a festival, building venues for artists to do their shows in, those sorts of hard costs, have increased dramatically over the last five or six years,” she said. “Our funding, government funding, to date has not increased and so it’s very difficult.’’

On the subject of politics and comedy, Provan said the Australian scene included “comedians across the (political) spectrum. They are probably slightly more left-leaning than they are right-leaning, but there is definitely a very wide spectrum.’’

However, when asked to name conservatives working on the local comedy circuit, she said: “I can’t really think of anyone offhand because they’re not sort of loud in the festival, but I don’t want to offend anybody ... I know they’re out there, but maybe they don’t so much do the festivals.’’

On comedians facing the threat of cancel culture, she said: “The threat of cancel culture is a bit of a beat-up ... We all just want artists and audiences to be respectful and kind ... I think most of the people that I work with and who participate in our festivals are the kind of artists ... that don’t punch down. If you’ve got to punch, punch up.”

In 2019, the festival was accused of cancelling Barry Humphries – a co-founder of the event – when his name was expunged from its key award, the Barry Award for best show. That move followed comments by Humphries describing transgender surgeries as “self-mutilation” and transgenderism as “a fashion”.

The festival described those comments as “not helpful” and denied cancelling Humphries, widely regarded as Australia’s most successful comedian.

Festival organisers were sharply criticised again over their tardiness in announcing a tribute to the Dame Edna creator when he died in 2023.

Actor and presenter Miriam Margolyes told the ABC the festival had mistreated her friend, whom she regarded as a “genius”, when they “cancelled him rather late in life”. She added that Humphries “had more talent in his little finger than they (the festival) did in their whole bodies’’.

Humphries was politically conservative and Margolyes said that while “I didn’t like his politics ... I revere the talent of the man. It was coruscating, it was all-enveloping.’’

Launched in 1987, the festival typically attracts about 700,000 people a year.

It recorded net deficits of $162,062 in 2024 and $739,264 in 2023, according to financial statements lodged with the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission.

Financial statements also reveal the festival’s staff numbers more than tripled, from 19 full-time and part-time employees in 2018, to 62 full-time and part-time employees in 2024.

The festival’s annual reports show its government revenue, including grants, was $2,047,000 million in 2018. By 2024, that figure had only marginally increased to $2,119,644.

The 2025 festival ran in Melbourne from late March to late April and featured emerging and established stars including Dave Hughes, Lizzy Hoo, Urzila Carlson and John Safran. It also featured showcases by British, bush and self-described “brown women” comedians.

The festival’s comedy roadshow, which takes comedians to regional centres around the country, continues into July.

When she spoke to The Australian this month, Provan said she was hoping ticket sales this year would match those from 2024 but that “we’re honestly just not sure yet, maybe they’ll come in a little bit lower’’.

The director who has led the festival since 1994 said its average ticket price of $35 was “reasonably accessible”, especially when compared to the cost of opera and ballet tickets.

Despite this, there had been a “definite” trend this year in which “people were being careful with their money” and booking shows at the last minute, reflecting cost-of-living pressures.

As Review reports today, in the US conservative comedians and podcasters including Andrew Schulz, Joe Rogan, Greg Gutfeld and Theo Von are fostering an anti-PC comedy culture and finding mass audiences.

Experts say the trend has not taken root in Australia, partly because we are a less polarised society than the US.