The best comedians in Adelaide
February and March are the thing to plan around here. Festival season takes the city over for weeks, and the local comics who work functions the rest of the year are booked into runs of their own, sometimes twice in an evening. A corporate date in that window either goes in months ahead or waits until autumn. The rest of the year is easier here than in most capitals.
The pool of comics who do function work in Adelaide is not large, and the ones who are good at it have played most of the city's bigger rooms already. That is worth using. Ask which venues they have worked rather than which festivals they have played, because the skills are not the same and the second list tells you nothing about your night.
Top picks in Adelaide
Top picks are the acts in this category in Adelaide, without a review, rating or premium ranking: all these sort keys are tied.
Questions people ask about comedians in Adelaide
How much does it cost to hire a comedian in Adelaide?
Set length is what you are buying, so settle that before anything else. A twenty minute spot after dinner is a smaller purchase than a headline hour in front of a seated audience, and hosting the night on top of the set is a third price again. A comic driving down to the South East or across to the Riverland may also quote for the day. Each comic here publishes their own live from-price, and that is the honest place to begin.
How much does a comedian cost per hour?
Comedy is not really priced by the hour, and an hourly figure is misleading because an hour on stage is a headline booking rather than a longer version of a spot. What you pay for is the length of the set and the preparation behind it. Ask for the price of a twenty minute spot and the price of hosting as well, then compare those two numbers rather than dividing anything.
Can the comedian also MC our awards night?
Many will, and for an Adelaide function it usually beats paying for a comic and a host separately, with the evening hanging together better as a result. The catch is that the two jobs are not the same one. Keeping a presentation schedule moving for two hours asks for patience and organisation rather than twenty sharp minutes, and plenty of funny people are poor at it. Ask how regularly they host and what they want from your run sheet.
How do I book a comedian without a phone call?
Use the enquiry form on this page and put the date, the venue suburb, the guest count and where the set sits in the night into it. Everything comes back to you in writing, asking holds nothing and there is no sign up. Mention in the notes if the booking is a surprise and the conversation stays entirely on email.
Booking tips
Give them the no-go list in writing
Restructures, a departure, a merger, the person everyone is quietly talking about. Five lines in an email before the comic starts writing will do more for your night than anything else you send them, and it costs nothing.
Twenty minutes after the mains
A room that has eaten will sit and listen. A room four hours into the bar will talk over anyone. Put the set between the main course and the dancing, and do not let it slide to after the music has started.
Ask what the venue's microphone actually is
The set lives or dies on being heard cleanly at the back of the room. A microphone fixed to a lectern in a wide Adelaide function space will flatten good material, and one squeal or half a second of delay in a punchline takes the rest of the set with it.