Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 05 April
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
In comedy, sometimes it can feel like it’s not about what jokes you know but which jokers you know. Writing for stage, film and TV offers experience, connections and a livelihood to many comedians from emerging through to the more established. What exactly goes on behind the closed doors of the writers’ room, and how do you score an invitation?
At this panel event we’re opening the doors to the room. We’ll hear from comedy writers and producers – including Luke McGregor (Rosehaven, The Weekly), Declan Fay (Ronny Chieng: International Student), Laura Davis (Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell) and host Ange Lavoipierre (Gruen, Question Everything) – working across a range of mediums as they discuss the various roles at play in a typical writers’ room, and share insights into aspects such as editorial censorship, the producer-writer relationship, and how long-form writing for serial television shows differs from daily news satire.
Presented in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Featuring
Laura Davis
Laura Davis is a stand-up comedian and television host known for her peculiar style – riding the line between charming and challenging. Recently winning awards for Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe and Best Independent ...
Declan Fay
Declan Fay is an award-winning writer, producer and director who co-created Ronny Chieng: International Student, which has screened on ABC, BBC, Comedy Central and Netflix. Over fifteen years, he has written for Rove, Dirty Laundry Live, Problems, and You’re Skitting Me and Retrograde. He was also a script consultant on the recent Australian film, Standing Up for Sunny.
In 2015, he was series producer and head writer on ABC sketch comedy show Fancy Boy which won an AWGIE. He also co-created the ABC narrative comedy podcast, Crossbread, which was nominated for an ARIA and named as one of Apple’s top podcasts of the year.
He has also written for successful documentaries such as Corey White's Roadmap to Paradise, Felicity Ward’s Mental Mission, and Hipsters.
Declan has directed a number of successful stage shows, including Felicity Ward’s The Hedgehog Dilemma, David Quirk’s Thrasher and Dave Thornton’s Different Kind of Normal, which all sold out the Melbourne Comedy Festival and toured Edinburgh. In 2021 he directed Greg Larsen’s stage show This Might Not Be Hell, which sold out the Melbourne Comedy Festival and received the Piece of Wood Award as chosen by fellow comics.
Luke McGregor
Luke McGregor started his stand up comedy career in Tasmania in 2007 when he entered the raw comedy competition after one of the contestants didn’t show up. In 2008 he was selected as a Raw Comedy national finalist.
2017 has seen Luke return to stand up with sell out seasons of his brand new solo show Almost Fixed It in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. Later this year, Luke will be back on the ABC with the second series of Rosehaven, with a new broadcast partner in the United States, SundanceTV.
Luke was a regular performer and writer for three seasons on Channel 31’s Studio A. He has written on various TV projects including Legally Brown, It’s A Date 2 and Our Watch – Christmas Campaign.
In 2013, Luke’s first solo Melbourne International Comedy Festival Show, My Soul Mate Is Out Of My League, played to sold out rooms and won the prestigious Best Newcomer Award. He then went on to perform a hugely successful season at London’s Soho Theatre.
Luke performed in the feature films Now Add Honey and Border Protection Squad (in which he co-starred alongside Peter Helliar, Ryan Shelton, Dave Hughes and Lachy Hulme). On television, he has had regular roles on Utopia (ABC) and Legally Brown (SBS), and appeared on Time Of Our Lives (ABC1), Josh Thomas' Please Like Me (ABC/Pivot), and the telemovie Scumbus. His ‘ginger wonderland’ date with Sibylla Budd in It’s A Date (ABC1) stole the show, and he garnered cult figure status amongst the celebrities lucky enough to be interviewed by him on Dirty Laundry (ABC2). Luke has also appeared on True Story with Hamish & Andy, The Project as a correspondent, This Week Live, Spicks and Specks and the web series Noirhouse.
Luke performed his solo show I Worry That I Worry Too Much at the 2014 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Immediately after the MICF, Luke took the show to the Sydney Comedy Festival and was awarded Best Newcomer 2014; he then went on to perform his debut season at the Edinburgh Festival and a return season at the Soho Theatre in London. In 2015, he performed a return season of three sold out shows at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne.
In 2016, Luke presented Luke Warm Sex (ABC), a show that took an embarrassingly honest and humorous look at all things ‘sex’. Luke then teamed up with Celia Pacquola for the hit series Rosehaven (ABC), a new comedy filmed in Tasmania which they wrote and performed the lead roles in.
Ange Lavoipierre
Ange Lavoipierre is an award-winning journalist, writer, and comedian. She’s currently touring her new comedy hour I’ve Got 99 Problems And Here Is An Exhaustive List Of Them in Australia and the UK. Outside of live performance, Ange is an unreconstructed ABC journalist of more than decade – most recently as the host of the ABC’s daily news podcast, as well as being a regular contributor on Radio National, ABC Radio Melbourne and Double J. This year, Ange is joining the writers rooms for Gruen & Question Everything (ABC TV). She’s also the co-creator of the original sketch web series Impostors.