Two of Wagga’s most promising comedic talents are set to represent the city in the upcoming RAW Comedy competition.
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RAW is an amateur open mic competition for Australian comedians – candidates perform at a series of heats in an attempt to make it to the grand final at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – where they perform in front of 1200 people.
Rochelle Bennett only started performing stand-up comedy six months ago; now, she said she’s ready to battle it out on the big stage.
“I went to the Wagga Comedy Festival and I saw people I knew on stage and I thought I could do this and that sort of got me interested in comedy,” Ms Bennett said.
“I've been interested in RAW since I was a kid – I would see it on TV and I would record it on VHS and I would watch it over and over again.
“My comedy is observational – I always joke and say I haven't actually got any jokes in there, it's just my life.”
Aidan Mungai is also competing after making it to the RAW state finals last year.
“Last year was pretty good – I think the Canberra comedians were just a little bit wowed by me because they had no idea who I was,” Mr Mungai said.
“I got into the state final with a wild card, so that was a real big learning experience and I had to really push myself further than I thought I could – but I think I'm way better prepared this year.”
Mr Mungai said RAW was just another example of how Wagga’s comedy scene was set to thrive in 2018.
“We're a very young comedy scene – we're only just starting to find our feet – but we're starting to creep onto the scene and say ‘hey, funny stuff happens here’,” he said.
Both comedians said they couldn’t have made it as far as they had without the enduring support of the Riverina Comedy Club.
Ms Bennett’s heat is on January 23 in Sydney, and Mr Mungai’s heat is on February 21 in Canberra.