Deadly Funny

It's that time of year, comedy lovers, as emerging First Nations comics take the mic to dish out their original giggle-inducing material.

^{By Tierney White}

PRESENTED BY THE Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Deadly Funny unearths the freshest and funniest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander talents across our great continent.

Budding comics compete in heats in more than 20 towns and communities across Australia, with winners going on to compete in the Deadly Funny National Grand Final at the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. No gammon.

The nation-wide comp has catapulted the careers of deadly comedians including Steph Tisdell, Kevin Kropinyeri, Dane Simpson, Elaine Crombie and Sean Choolburra, to name a few. Heats for rib-tickling Territorians are held in Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek this month, and comedy lovers are invited to sit in and enjoy the diverse mix of talent as it’s unearthed.

Leon Filewood is a lawyer who was born and raised on Waiben (Thursday Island), Kaurareg Country, in the Torres Strait. He took out the national competition in 2018 after starting comedy for the first time at the age of 37, and joins Dane Simpson to run the pre-show workshops. Filewood says comedy is so much more than just a form of entertainment.

“Humour is part of Mob’s sort of essence of being, you know what I mean? Obviously there’s Sorry Business … but typically, when Mob get together, we always have a laugh, it’s just the way we are I guess,” he says.

“The other big piece for me is we’ve got 236 years of colonial history, obviously intergenerational trauma and those sorts of things, and comedy for us and the space of humour in general, especially with Mob, is healing, you know? There’s so much Sorry Business in our communities … we need every opportunity to be able to reflect and heal, and comedy is a big part of that.”

Get set for a night of laughter near you to find out who could be reppin’ the Territory at the national final in 2025. Too deadly.

Deadly Funny
Darwin
WHEN TUE 24 SEP | 7.30PM
AT DARWIN ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
COST $15

Alice Springs
WHEN FRI 27 SEP | 5.30PM
AT OLIVE PINK BOTANIC GARDENS
COST FREE

Tennant Creek
INFO comedyfestival.com.au

^{Header & Thumbnail: Photo: T J Garvie}