Kiama youngster hits road with comedy festival

KATINA CURTIS

THE Melbourne Comedy Festival has hit the road and one of the home-grown artists featuring in its Wollongong run is Kiama’s own Jack Druce.

The 17-year-old Kiama High School student has just come home from a month of performing at the Melbourne festival after coming to the attention of organisers through his successes in the 2006 Class Clowns and 2007 Raw Comedy competitions.

He did 22 performances with the Comedy Zone, a quartet of new comedy talents the festival’s organisers wanted to showcase.

“It was hard work but it was hard work that I really loved doing, so it was kind of like a holiday,” he said.

Jack started performing stand-up comedy at “some silly kind of talent quest things” when he was in primary school and decided to pursue it more after doing well in the Class Clowns competition.

His all-time favourite comic is the late Mitch Hedburg, an American stand-up comedian, but he also enjoys the wacky style of comedians such as Ross Noble and Sam Simmons.

“I don’t know if I’ve been doing it long enough to really have a style, but I just try to take any silly thought I have and develop it into a story and practise it and polish it until it works,” he said.

“I don’t really think about the logistics.”

As well as the four-day run at the Illawarra Performing Arts centre with the roadshow, Jack also gets up to Sydney for regular open mic nights.

“I just want to keep doing as much stand-up as I can,” he said.

“I’m not really in a situation where I can make a planned career goal out of it, I just want to do as much comedy as I can.”

Other artists featuring in the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow are Mickey D, Hannah Gadsby, Kent Valentine and Jacques Barrett.

The show is on at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from May 28 to 31. Tickets are $35 for adults and $30 concession.