Our guide to the best of Sydney Comedy Festival 2024

Australia’s comedy festival season is the bread and butter of these legendary comedians, and it's also your chance to see masters of the craft doing what they do best: performing live. We’ve got the ever-impressive multi-award-winning Rhys Nicholson back in town off the back of releasing a memoir and another season on the panel of Drag Race Down Under with Huge Big Party Congratulations (Apr 27 at Enmore Theatre). Speaking of people who are even more exciting to see in the flesh than on a spicy prime time television panel appearance, Reuben Kaye is popping on a lash to bring Apocalipstik to Sydney (Apr 27 at Enmore Theatre), the latest in his exciting run of loud, politically active, queer, brash comedy cabaret shows. 

Speaking of staple stand-up acts, Wil Anderson is back with Wilegitimate, his biggest show in five years, and it is sure to sell out (May 10 at Concourse Chatswood; May 11 at Enmore Theatre). Hard Quiz Overlord, Master of Tasks and Gold Logie Winner Tom Gleeson is getting on the Gear (May 4-5 at Enmore Theatre; May 2-3 at Concourse Chatswood); the ever funny Dilruk Jayasinha is back after a year of heartache (and a heart attack) with Preloved (May 10 at Concourse Chatswood; May 11 at The Comedy Store); and Sydney’s own ridiculously funny comedian, actor and chicken nugget enthusiast Aaron Chen is back with Funny Garden (Apr 26-28 at The State Theatre). Meanwhile, the inimitable Judith Lucy is teaming up with Kaz Cooke for their Menopausal Night Out tour (May 19 at The Grand Electric) full of laughter and useful, real chat about perimenopause and what comes next. Once described by Time Out as “mind melting in the very best way”, Zoe Coombs Marr is back in action with Every Single Thing In My Entire Life (May 18 at The Grand Electric); and another comedian who we’d classify as odd-but-wholesome, Geraldine Hickey is back with Don’t Tease Me About My Gloves (May 10-11 The Grand Electric).

Sydney has been cooking up some incredible comedic minds, and it’s high time to see what they’re serving. The queen of eye rolls, Chris Ryan was already the hottest new act in comedy before she officially moved to Sydney, but we’ll claim her nonetheless – catch the deadpan legend tearing apart pop psychology and fakery in Good-O (Apr 26-28 at Enmore Theatre). The winner of SCF’s Director’s Choice Award in 2022, Cameron James is also back with Mixtape (May 8-12 at Factory Theatre) – a show about music, love, and the summer in 2009 that he worked as a singing Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator at a suburban dinner theatre restaurant. 

All aboard! The Emerald City’s favourite adopted Mixed Race Queer British son AJ Lamarque is inviting everyone to set sail on A Beginner’s Guide to Gay Cruising (May 9-11 at The Comedy Store), and pre-eminent lesbian comedian of the Inner West, Jenna Suffern, invites you into their existential crisis with a new and improved version of the very funny meta-theatrical moment It’s Not Funny, It’s Private (May 8+10 at Factory Theatre). Another local comedian taking a more theatrical direction is Lauren Bonner – in Imagine Having Anything At All, she plays a delusional teacher caught in an affair with one of her students who is forced to live her worst nightmare – accepting responsibility for her actions (May 16-19 at Factory Theatre). Award-winning comedian Bec Melrose is back to guide you through some hard earned life lessons in Cautionary Tales (Apr 27-28 at Enmore Theatre); and scallywag Andrew Hastings invites you to interrogate his recent ADHD diagnosis in Andrew Deficit Hastings Disorder (May 1-3 at Factory Theatre). 

Multi-award-winner Alex Hines invites you into her camp, chaotic and absurd mind with Putting On A Show, an unhinged theatrical extravaganza combining standup, sketch and insanity (May 1-3 at Factory Theatre). You’re also in for a wild ride with Ruby Teys in Dog C*nt – in which she shares her story of survival, and the stranger-than-fiction journey that followed the three years she spent touring the country in the breakout role of Bali’s most iconic big sister ‘Mercedes Corby’ in the indie smash hit comedy musical Schapelle, Schappelle!

Of course, the Comedy Festival is also a great time to catch shows from hilarious performers from outside of the colony as well. The hilarious Stephen K Amos (UK) is back with a brand new show, after treading the boards of London's West End in My Fair Lady (May 11-12 at Factory Theatre); the king of musical comedy, David O’Doherty (IRE) has fresh batteries in his keyboard and he’s back for more silly antics (Apr 26 at Enmore Theatre); and the Best of Fest winner from last year’s SCF, Guy Montgomery (NZ) is back from across the ditch with his signature observational style (May 3-5 at Enmore Theatre). Speaking of funny Kiwis, Eli Matthewson is doing Daddy Shortlegs (Apr 26-28 at Enmore Theatre), in which he confronts his dad stealing his thunder by also coming out as gay. And if you say that you love drag, then start your engines – NYC’s legendary queen Lady Bunny is coming to town with Don’t Bring Your Kids (May 4+12 at The Comedy Store). 

As heard on podcasts like The Guilty Feminist, acclaimed comedian Kemah Bob comes to Australia with Miss Fortunate (May 16-18 at Factory Theatre) their debut stand-up show about mental health, acceptance and sea salt. Internet sensation Sarah Keyworth had to add a second date for their new show My Eyes Are Up Here (Apr 27 at the Comedy Store) due to popular demand, in which they unpack 2023: the year that Sarah turned 30, got diagnosed with ADHD, and had top surgery. You can also join Irish lass Catherine Bohart for Again, With Feelings – a hilariously twisted second coming of age saga as she reckons with death obsessed parents, queer reproduction and how adulthood, frankly, isn’t living up to her expectations. A nominee for Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer award who has been doing the rounds on the telly, Helen Bauer is also Down Under with Grand Supreme Darling Princess (May 26-27 at Factory Theatre). And if you speak Cantonese, make sure you don’t miss Chan Lok Tim (HK) on his world tour (Apr 26 at The Concourse).

Sometimes, you just need to get weird. Everybody likes parfait, but if you believe that ogres are like onions, you should be delighted to know that Swamplesque is on its way to Sydney (May 9-10 at Concourse Chatswood; May 11-12 at Enmore Theatre) – following sold-out runs across the country and a name change, this sexy adults-only parody show features burlesque, drag, and gum-drop buttons. Want a little education along with the laughter? Future Science Talks returns to the festival (May 11-12 at Factory Theatre; May 18 at Manning Bar) with 15 scientists from Sydney partnering with comedians to infuse humour and laughs into scientific talks – topics have included psychedelic therapies, the science behind the smell of wine, manufactured meat, neuroscience, psychology, and animals. 

You can also enjoy unconventional entertainment with Sh!tfaced Shakespeare’s take on Macbeth (Apr 26-28 at Concourse Chatswood; May 8-19 at Manning Bar), it’s the smash-hit phenomenon from the UK where very serious Shakespeare is derailed by one genuinely inebriated actor; and The Bear Pack (Apr 26 at Enmore Theatre), the cult improv show that’s so good that it’ll turn improv-sceptics into superfans (our critic describes it as “an hour-long orgasm for your brain”). Did someone say improv? The longest-running hit comedy show in town, Theatresports All Stars, is back (May 19 at Enmore Theatre); and things will be getting loose at the Improv Comedy Cagefight Grand Final (May 1 at Factory Theatre).