Election Special: Stand-Up … and Be Counted

Toby Halligan writes for Channel 10's The Project and SBS's Legally Brown, and has appeared on ABC's Strictly Speaking. His debut comedy show, Electile Dysfunction, was nominated for the best newcomer award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and he regularly performs with Australia’s preeminent live political stand-up comedy group, Political Asylum. He is the co-author of the popular Diary Leaks website and his writing has appeared in Mamamia, the Monthly and the Age.

Nazeem Hussain is the star of his own critically-acclaimed TV show, Legally Brown, which aired on SBS. The show broke ground with its boundary-pushing content, received wide spread critical acclaim and was nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy at the 2015 Logie Awards. Nazeem is also well known as a stand-up comedian, and until recently was part of political comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet.

Claire Hooper started on the stage – crafting engaging, innovative live shows that blended stand-up, theatre and some hammer dancing.

Her 2006 show, Oh, earned her both critical acclaim and a nomination for the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer award. A born storyteller with a sharp wit, Claire has gone on to regularly perform at festivals and comedy rooms all over the country.

Claire Hooper started on the stage – crafting engaging, innovative live shows that blended stand-up, theatre and some hammer dancing.

Her 2006 show, Oh, earned her both critical acclaim and a nomination for the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer award. A born storyteller with a sharp wit, Claire has gone on to regularly perform at festivals and comedy rooms all over the country.

For four years Claire shared a set with Paul McDermott and Mikey Robbins on the iconic comedy show Good News Week as a team captain. She has also appeared on Rove and The Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Great Debate and Opening Night Gala. In 2019, she returned to Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Great Debate as host.

Over the last decade, Claire has been captivating audiences and touring brilliant solo shows across the country to critical acclaim.

In 2015 Claire scored her dream job, as co-host of The Great Australian Bake Off for Foxtel’s LifeStyle Channel alongside the seriously funny Mel Buttle, as well as judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran and their fourth season aired in 2019.

Zoë is a performer, writer, artist and comedian. She grew up in Grafton, where she and her best friend staged a musical instead of going to schoolies week. In 2006 she won the National Poetry Slam Championships under ...

Aamer Rahman is an Australian comedian whose work covers politics, race relations, and the War on Terror. He has performed sold-out shows at some of the world's largest festivals including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe. 

Rahman's work has been covered by media outlets such as The Huffington Post, NBC, Slate, Colorlines, Afropunk, AlterNet, VICE and Essence Magazine.

He has supported legendary standups such as Dave Chappelle, and performed alongside critically acclaimed Hip-Hop artists Brother Ali and Lowkey.  In 2014 he was named one of the Guardian newspaper's top 10 live comedy shows of the year. 

He has appeared in conversation with public intellectuals and activists such as Dr Cornel West and Professor Angela Davis.

Mathew Kenneally is a stand up and political satirist. He is the founder and producer of the monthly comedy room Political Asylum. He moonlights as a lawyer and political columnist. Occasionally he muses on the AFL, just to prove he really is Victorian. His work has featured in NewMatilda, The Monthly, and the Big Issue.

Gerard McCulloch is head writer for the ABC's The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, having previously written for The Project, Dirty Laundry Live, Rove and more. Onstage, he’s earned a Best Newcomer and a Barry Award nomination at Melbourne’s comedy festival, a Melbourne Fringe Comedy Award, and had a sellout show in Edinburgh; offstage, he has a degree in Arabic. Be alert, not alarmed.

Denise Scott first started working as a professional actor and comedian nearly thirty years ago, but it has been in the last six years that she has been selling out theatres, scoring herself a regular gigs on high rating national television shows and seeing her two books creep towards bestseller status.

​Denise first started working as a professional actor and comedian nearly 30 years ago, but it has been in the last decade or so that Scotty has gone supernova – winning awards, selling out theatres, appearing on high-rating TV shows and writing two popular memoirs.

To wit: in 2009 Denise penned All That Happened at Number 26, a book which became a national best seller and a hit tour, with sell-out seasons at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Sydney Opera House. Number 26 was also produced as a DVD for the Warehouse Comedy Festival series.

Scotty’s subsequent solo show, Regrets, was awarded the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Directors’ Choice Award, with Scotty winning a Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer. She then made her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and released her second book, The Tour.

Fittingly, 2013 was all about touring for Denise, hitting the stage with her dear friend Judith Lucy in The Spiral. Their stand-up-slash-book-tour debuted at the Princess Theatre during MICF and went on to sell well over 30,000 tickets across Australia. 

Scotty has been and remains a favourite guest on many of Australia's favourite TV shows, including Spicks and Specks, The Project, and Talkin' ‘bout Your Generation, in addition to starring as Trish Gross on Channel 7’s high-rating drama Winners & Losers.

In 2014, Denise returned to the stage once more with a new, Barry Award-winning solo show, Mother Bare, at Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Opera House and the Brisbane Powerhouse. And in 2015, Mother Bare returned to MICF for a limited run at the Comedy Theatre and the prestigious Hamer Hall. Denise also guested in Please Like Me, Jack Irish and House Husbands.