What is The Moosehead?

It is an organisation that wants to give financial support to Australian comedians putting on new shows in the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Why do we want to help you put on your show?

The Mooseheads have a really long history of supporting comedians in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We have helped fund innovative and wild ideas for actual decades, we love live comedy and the comedians that make it and we want to help support them to do the best possible show they can. We think the best way to do that is to:

1. Remove some of the financial risk that makes putting on a festival show terrifying so you can concentrate on the comedy.
2. Provide creative support or collaboration that could elevate your performance.

How will we help you put on your show?

1. We will pay your Melbourne Comedy Festival registration fee for you.
2. We will pay the first $3,000 of your venue rental (this does not need to be a festival managed venue).
3. We will pay up to $2,500 for you to have creative support around your show – this usually means a director but it could be a sound designer, animator, script consultant, etc. (we may also support production costs for a particularly wild idea)
4. We will do some overhead marketing.
5. If you live outside of Melbourne at the time of application (including Regional Victorian locations more than 90 mins from Melbourne CBD), we will contribute up to $2,000 towards your accommodation costs for the Festival. We recognise that the Festival is even more expensive to participate in for interstate and regionally based Artists. Please note your place of residence at the time of your application will be considered final.

That’s it. Nice and simple. We do not give cash to do with what you want. We will pay invoices directly to the supplier/provider.

Who can apply?

Any working comedian who is an Australian permanent resident can apply. Please note that you do not need to be an independent artist to apply. You can have a producer and/or manager (commercial or otherwise) attached to your show.

This is not an award for newcomers, you will most likely have done at least one full-length festival show before.

What do we need from you?

We just need you to fill in a really pretty basic form.

1. Tell us about you. What have you done as a performer so far? This is the Bio bit.

2.Tell us why you think 2026 is your year.
– Do you feel you have momentum? If so, please explain why.

– Is it the right time in your career to take the next step? If so, why?

– Have you got a particularly great idea for next year’s show? If so, take us through it.

– What difference could a Moosehead grant make to the show you present?

– Was there something that you discovered in the last festival or something that you have
seen that has excited you? There is no right or wrong answer here we just want to know why you think your 2026 Festival is going to be special and why our support could really help you get to the next level.

3. Links and clips – if you have something you want to show us, especially if you are not from Melbourne or Sydney and we may not have seen you.

4. Please tell us if you will be doing a:
– Full Run
– Half Run
– Less than a half run and if so how many shows.

5. Have you applied for or already received any other grants or funding for this show? And if so what?

Applications open August 2025. Sign up below to be notified.

If you have any queries please email [email protected].

How do we decide if you will be successful?

The Moosehead Committee appoint a selection committee made up of managers, producers, festival programming staff and comedians (who have not applied for a Moosehead)! The selection committee changes every year to keep it fresh.

Some terms and conditions

While this isn’t for anyone’s first show, it is also not intended to support commercially established shows. As a rule, this is for artists in venues of less than 120 seats (this is a guide, we won’t be counting chairs). We know there will be reasons from time to time that people will be in bigger rooms (eg: shorter runs, production needs) and you can talk to us about this.

Producers and managers must pass the whole benefit of the grant through to the artist by way of reduced costs for the show which cannot be shared with other shows. The artist must receive no less than 60% of the profits and the producer cannot charge fees other than the profit share.

You can have done a preview season in a Fringe Festival (Perth or Adelaide) but this is a fund to make something new – it isn’t for polishing gold.

You need to be an Australian permanent resident.

The selection committee is not required to give feedback on applications.

The committee will need to sign off on the director/collaborator, who can’t also be one of the people in the show. If you have your heart set on someone, let us know now – otherwise, we will talk about it once we have selected the recipients.

 

Be the first to find out when Moosehead Applications open!