Meet the new guard of comedy stars – and watch their terrible life advice

Every year, Australia’s major comedy festivals deliver some of the biggest names in the funny business. From Hannah Gadsby to Tom Gleeson, David O’Doherty and Rich Hall – these comics have been cracking people up for decades.

But as these legends continue their victory laps, a new guard is emerging. They may not have as much experience under their belts, but they have certainly built a large following, much of which is online.

These performers are dominating both on stage and the (small) screen, demonstrating a new kind of versatility and broadening the scope of what it means to be a comedian – and how you become one.

So, here are four rising stars now performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – and coming soon to Sydney Comedy Festival – who are redefining what it means to break out in comedy today.

Tarang Hardikar

Sometimes, the most mundane things in life are the funniest. Few understand this better than Tarang Hardikar, a stand-up comedian from Maharashtra, India. His jokes touch on universal quandaries, such as the stress of telling a ride-share driver when to take a turn.

Much of his style is thanks to Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr Bean). He quickly became Hardikar’s muse, inspiring the plays he’d write at school and sketches he performed in college. But, like Atkinson, not all of Hardikar’s material was for everyone.

“The first-ever bit I wrote was about my college,” he says. “It was very rebellious, and the faculty didn’t like it. I questioned their fee structure, so they were like, ‘next time, just tell him not to perform’.”

Beginning a comedy career in the small Indian town of Pune wasn’t easy. Hardikar says it involved literally pulling people off the street for open mic nights. It wasn’t always successful.

“There’d be like 20 comics and three people in the audience,” he says. “But then I moved to Bombay, and Mumbai has a bigger [comedy] scene, so I started building a bigger audience.”

Fast-forward to today, and Hardikar is performing in front of hundreds of people for the first time at MICF.

“Sometimes, you have to really take a moment to yourself. Like I’m performing to so many people right now – I have to take this in. You go from one day performing to a four-person audience, and then you’re like, ‘oh, 400 people. What’s going on?’.”

Hardikar will perform If I’m Not Wrong at MICF until April 19. He will also perform as part of the Asian All Stars Gala. He will then perform at Sydney Comedy Festival on April 25.

Sez

Sarah O’Neill, better known as Sez, wanted to be the next Missy Higgins. But after realising her “super serious” songs were giving more “bar of soap” vibes, she decided to become the next best thing: a musical comedian.

Equipped with a guitar or omnichord, the Melbourne-based comic has become known for blending musical comedy, irreverent storytelling and Gen Z-focused observational humour.

Her career largely began with the COVID-19 lockdowns. She had no one to talk to and desperately craved attention. So, she began posting funny videos online, many of which took off, leading her to try open mics once lockdowns lifted.

But going from social media to stand-up wasn’t exactly easy, she says. “You can delete a TikTok pretty quick … But live on stage, you’re trapped. There are people, it’s live,” Sez says.

‘You can delete a TikTok pretty quick ... But on stage, you’re trapped. There are people, it’s live.’

Sez

As scary as it can be performing in front of hundreds of people, some of whom heckle, Sez says it doesn’t compare to the brutal messages comedians get online. “I’ve had heaps of crazy hate messages ... I’ll get a message being like, ‘I want to eat your skin’. No one has said that to me at a gig. Not yet.”

This has, in turn, helped her cope with live heckling better – because what could be worse than someone saying they’re going to cannibalise you?

She’d take heckling over misogyny any day though, an issue she says the comedy realm is still grappling with.

“Sometimes, you’ll walk on stage at a line-up gig, and you feel like people have already given up on you. But then again, I am a musical comedian, and some people really don’t like musical comedy,” Sez says. “Believing in yourself – that’s probably the real challenge.”

Sez will perform Sorry, What? at MICF until April 19. She will also perform at Sydney Comedy Festival from May 16-17.

Takashi Wakasugi

Learning a new language is tough. Learning to be funny in another language is even tougher. But for Japanese comedian Takashi Wakasugi, learning how to make people laugh in English has made Australia feel more like home.

“When I came to Australia, I was still struggling. When you speak a second language, you always [speak] so slow, and there’s missed time. You cannot join the conversation. You’re always waiting, and miss the opportunity to speak,” says Wakasugi, best known as Waka. “But in stand-up comedy, you can do whatever you want … I don’t have to wait. I just say my opinion, my jokes.”

These jokes, many of which centre around funny cultural differences between Australia and Japan, have won him the Director’s Choice Award at MICF 2023, and a nomination for Most Outstanding Show at last year’s festival. He has also appeared on television shows like Taskmaster and Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee.

Performing for four weeks straight at MICF is no easy feat. However, Wakasugi says he considers stand-up like painting: once you finish one work of art, you move onto the next and create something entirely new from nothing. “Comedy never finishes. Everyone writes jokes and does shows, and after, we just have to write new jokes.”

And when things get a little too tiring? Just do Pilates, he says.

Wakasugi will perform Wabi-Sabi Comedy at MICF until April 19. He will also perform as part of the Asian All Stars Gala. He will then head to the Sydney Comedy Festival from May 14-17.

Anisa Nandaula

According to Anisa Nandaula, there couldn’t be a better time to get into comedy than now. The Ugandan-born, Brisbane-based comedian is herself evidence of this. Last year, she resigned from her day job to pursue comedy full-time. Since then she has blown up online, been nominated for best newcomer at MICF 2025, and appeared on both Channel 10’s Thank God You’re Here and the fifth season of Taskmaster. She’s even opened a show for US comedian Chelsea Handler.

Nandaula says she has one random man to thank for this wild trajectory.

“I was performing slam poetry, and in between my poems, I would make jokes with the audience. A guy in the crowd saw me, and he was like, ‘between your poems, you’re very funny’. So, I just gave it a crack because of that.”

Though the comedy scene is known for being brutally competitive, especially for emerging talent, Nandaula says she entered at a time when, thanks to social media, most gatekeepers had been eliminated.

“It’s not like back in the day when people were vying for the same eyeballs. You can make your own community, so you don’t have to worry about competing with anyone else. Everyone can succeed,” she says.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone who succeeds online can translate that success onto the stand-up stage.

“They’re two completely different mediums. It’ll take me 10 seconds to record a video and maybe five minutes to post it online. To do my first hour of [stand-up] comedy, it took me practicing every single day for five years – failure after failure, doing it every single night, writing all day,” Nandaula says. “Someone could be great online and not good in real life, and someone could be great in real life and bomb online.”

Nandaula will perform No Small Talk at MICF until April 19. She will also perform at the Sydney Comedy Festival from May 16-17.

The Age is a Melbourne International Comedy Festival partner.

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