[Source: ABC News]

Peter Josip tried his hand at a few tricks before entering comedy — everything from musical theatre to mixed martial arts.

He even came second in the national final of a singing competition — but doesn’t tend to boast about that achievement.

“In my section, I was the only competitor,” the Melbourne local explains.

“I hadn’t practised in weeks, so I performed really bad, and they gave me second.

“I was on a podium, standing on second, next to no-one on third, and no-one on first.”

His Les Misérables song choice didn’t help the situation.

“Coming second to no-one with a song titled ‘Master of the House’ was another slap in the face,” he says.

A decade later, Josip’s finally redeemed himself, beating a thousand other hopefuls to win the prestigious RAW Comedy National Grand Final.

Part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), the competition has been running for almost 30 years, and has propelled a wide array of up-and-coming Australian stand-ups to stardom, including The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng, Please Like Me’s Josh Thomas, Fisk’s Aaron Chen and Thank God You’re Here’s Celia Pacquola.

‘It’s pretty magic’
Geraldine Hickey is another major Australian comedy figure who credits RAW with kickstarting her career.

As a 21-year-old in Albury, the comedy scene was essentially non-existent for Hickey.

There were few opportunities to watch live comedy, so performing was out of the question.

That is, until RAW came along. Hickey made it to the 2001 final, where she performed on national TV and was applauded as runner-up.

“I don’t think I would have gotten gigs if I hadn’t done RAW,” she says.

As a young lesbian with a lack of ‘boys club’ connections in the big city, RAW gave Hickey the foot in the door she needed to get her start.

More than two decades later, she’s a regular across the TV and live-comedy circuit, and loves coming back to judge the RAW competition.

“When you see someone on stage get their first laugh, and you see the look on their face, it’s pretty magic.”

Susan Provan, the festival director of the MICF, has overseen RAW since its inception in 1996.

For her, part of the competition’s power is in platforming voices like Hickey’s, that might not otherwise get heard.

“Imagine if we hadn’t had the opportunity to see Hannah Gadsby or Joel Creasey or people who don’t immediately have that big, blokey pushy [confidence].”
Provan says RAW has always aimed to help fill the gap in regional centres and smaller cities, where there aren’t always opportunities like open mic nights.

The competition also prioritises creating a safe space for entrants, with heckling and misogynistic, racist or homophobic jokes banned.

“For women, it’s been really hard doing open mics,” Provan says.

“They’ve had to get up in some pub where everyone’s drunk and they have to follow someone who thinks rape jokes are hilarious.”

‘Much scarier financially’
With a lack of paid opportunities, most emerging comedians either have day jobs or leave Australia for markets like the US or UK; either for a few years, or for good.

“There are so many medium-sized cities overseas, you can be somewhere different every night of the year earning money, and there’s just not that opportunity here,” Provan says.

On top of that, COVID, lockdowns and the cost-of-living crisis have all changed people’s patterns for going out to see live comedy.

“People definitely book later, they make decisions about spending money later, and Saturday night isn’t what it was,” Provan explains.

“Particularly people working from home, they might come into the city just one night, rather than a few.”

She says these behaviour changes have made things “much scarier financially” for venues and comics alike.

For Josip, one of the biggest industry changes has been that writing great jokes will no longer necessarily lead to success.

“You kind of have to do everything as well as comedy,” he says.

“You have to be your own marketer, your own social media manager.”

‘A game changer’
Social media, too, has shifted the path to success, and provided another entry point for up-and-coming comedians, including those who may not suit the pub crowds of open mic nights.

“It’s been a bit of a game changer in terms of enabling people to develop their audiences,” Provan says.

“But being able to do little jokes on TikTok is very different to being able to hold a crowd for an hour in a live environment, so that stage time is still really important.”

Despite audiences moving away from traditional media, and the struggles of the live arts industries, Provan insists RAW will keep going strong, even if its flow-on effects are less certain.

“If I’d done this 20 years ago, it’s like: ‘Oh, you get to be on TV, that’s crazy,'” Josip says.

“Whereas now, it’s like: ‘Oh, you’ll get a great clip out of it to post to social media.'”

While Josip jokes his career end-goal is to be the mean judge on a Got Talent show, ultimately he says it’s an industry in which you can’t take anything for granted, “no matter how good or big you get”.

For Hickey, who’s currently touring her show ‘Meander’ at comedy festivals across the country, the changing industry means there are more places than ever “to plug away at it”.

“It’s about whatever avenue you can find to be successful and whatever success means to you.

“Success might be getting a million followers on TikTok, or success might be doing a solo show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It’s different for different people and nowadays, you can kind of do whatever you want to create your own success.”

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