Celebrating over 15 years in Sydney. Sign ups Now Open.
Welcome To BonkerZ Featured Artist Comedy Clubs, The $10 Dollar Comedy Clubs, Fast $100 , Comedy Court & Catch A Rising Comic Show and Australia’s # 1 School of Stand Up Comedy
Featuring The BonkerZ Comedy Club Circuit and Comedy Court’s $1000 Stand up Competitions.
NOTE: Room is produced and ran by an African American, if this is an issue with you, please stop here. Although we welcome all races and ethnic backgrounds, this has been an issue with some comics and comedy club owners in the past and in the present and to be honest, we don’t have the time and patience to deal with those who make this an issue. If this is an issue with you, may we recommend the other rooms. To everyone else who could care less, where I’m from and the color of my skin, you are always welcome.
Welcome to BonkerZ Comedy Clubs, home of Catch a Rising Comic. Since 2008, our idea was to create a professional room, where open mikers (or as we named them Rising Comics ) and semi-pros, could come and perfect their craft, because of this, we were the first to initiate lots of new concepts to Australian comedy rooms,
1. First to use 5 or more comics per show as standard. We were told this would destroy the comedy industry, but since all comedy rooms are now doing the same, I guess it didn’t after all.
2. First to use Wireless microphones as standard.
3. First to pay open mic’rs and semi-pros for regular gigs, inside and outside of the club. Prior to us, the only comics making any money were headliners.
4. First to have photo wall of fame inside the club that exclusively featured serious open mic’rs and semi-pros, local to the scene.
5. First to feature regular theme nights in their club that featured open mic’rs and semi-pros i.e 10 Comics for $10 Bucks (Started in 2010), Battle of the comic sexes, The Asian Stand up Comedy Invasion, 20 Comics in 60 Minutes, The African American and Asian Comedy Tour, Comedy Court, The $10 Dollar Comedy Clubs and Clean as a Whistle, to name a few.
6. First to give new up and comers, a chance to MC a show in a professional surrounding
7. First to give open mic’rs a minimum of 6 minutes on stage and semi-pros a minimum of 12-15 mins
8. First to give semi-pros up to 15 mins as a featured artist as standard. Hey, we know you can’t become a headliner if you’re only given 3 to 5 mins every time you’re on stage.
9. First to use a live DJ at every show. Now other clubs are doing it and we think it’s great!
10. First room designed and created specifically for Rising Star and Semi-Pros, who are serious about performing in a professional room and a room that gives them plenty of time on stage to help reach a headliner performance level. Our slots start at 6min and go up to 20 mins
11. Currently Sydney’s longest consecutively running comedy room. ( Over 15 years non stop since 2008 – except for covid forced shut down period)
Because of this, we’re only looking for serious and reliable stand up comics. If you have a previous history of lots of cancellations, no-shows or arriving late and if your routine consist of lots of profanity, racist and crude humor please don’t sign up, we’re not the comedy clubs for you. Even though we offer a variety of spots for comics from pros to up and comers, our audiences expect us to deliver a professional show every time and on time. On occasion we advertise, promote and market, the photos and names of each comic that will be performing on that week, Comics who cancel after confirming an appearance, make the club and themselves, look bad, when they don’t show or cancel. Nuff said.
We no longer put up the photos of comics on our home page due to the new cancel culture. Adding, removing, adding , removing cancelling comics photos daily, is to time consuming and we find total un-necessary. We’ve also found 90-95% of comics don’t promote themselves or the rooms they perform in anyway, so for us to go through the trouble of adding or removing cancelling comics images daily or weekly ,we’ve decide to stop adding images. We now do what 80% of the industry is doing already and that’s promote the MC or main headliner
We have 4 separate comedy Rooms/Shows.
- Catch A Rising Comic– TBA- 7:30pm
- BonkerZ Featured Artist Comedy Club- TBA
- Fast $100 Comedy Competitions. TBA 7:30pm. Fast $100 Competition Dates: Heat 1- / Heat 2 / Heat 3 – Aug
- BonkerZ Comedy Circuit (Several clubs across Sydney and The Adelaide Fringe Festivals)
- Comedy Court Stand up Competitions- Monthly Heats plus semi- Finals and Grand finals
Here’s the lineup for ALL shows.
Comedy Court Competition -6 slots per heat. Live Audience Digital Voting. Highest Score on the night by audience vote (1st place) goes directly to the Grand Finals. 2nd and 3rd highest scores win a spot in our Second chance Semi-Finals with a chance to win one of the two spots in the Grand Finals. 5 Heats (May-Sept) -1 Semi-Finals (Oct) -1 Grand Final (Nov) 1st Place Prize $500 / 2nd Place prize $300 / 3rd Place $200 / 4th Place winner $100 worth of Prizes i.e can be Dinner for 2 or Drink vouchers, Movie tickets etc. What heat spaces are available? May Heat #1 (Full) June Heat #2 (full) July Heat #3 (2 spaces left) Aug heat #4 (3 spaces left) Sept Heat # 5 (3 spaces left)
Catch A Rising Comic Slots Friday Nights– 2 open Miker (Rising Comic) 6 min slots per show
Fast $100 Comedy Competition 7:30pm (New dates announced soon- 5 times a year, with a Semi- Final after 4 heats) 1 MC, 1 featured Pro or Semi Pro and 5 – 6 Contestants. Grand Finals in Nov. 1st Prize $200 Cash. 2nd prize $75 cash. 3rd Prize $25. Note: Open to newbies and open mikers only- Requires 2 paid guest / Tickets (or just buy 2 tickets and give away) to enter this competition. The 2 guest requirement is for heats only, doesn’t apply to semi-finals and grand finals Nights.Fast $100 Rules: 2 Heats on the night. 6 Contestants perform a 2-3 min set. The audience votes for the top 4. Those Top 4 return on the same night to do an additional 2 min set. The audience votes again for the top 2 comics. The comic with the highest score wins $100 cash and a spot in the grand finals. The comic with the 2nd highest score, gets a 2nd chance in the semi-finals for another chance to be in the Grand final on Nov 24th,2022
The $10 Dollar Comedy Club 8pm (Back again soon) features: 1 MC plus 3 Featured Artist-12 min sets ( Pro’s, Semi Pros ) and 1-2 Rising Comic (5 min sets)
BonkerZ Featured Artist Comedy Clubs 7:30pm- Friday Nights features: 1 MC plus 3 Featured Artist (pro-Semi pro) – 12 min sets New Location Scruffy Murphy’s (level 2)
BonkerZ Paid Comedy Circuit Spots are 3 – 10 Featured Artist & MC (20 min slots). We reward & select our most reliable regular comics for the Comedy Circuit from our BonkerZ Comedy Club Friday Night shows i.e “Catch a Rising Comic” & “BonkerZ Featured Artist” Line ups first (our bread & butter), then outsourced any remaining slots from other seasoned industry comics. Note: Getting into the Paid BonkerZ Comedy Circuit is much easier if you’re a regular performer at BonkerZ Featured Artist and Catch A Rising Comic Shows .
Note: All Featured Artist Spots and Comedy Circuit Spots are selected by the Promoter
Comic Rules
Please note: Our club rules are designed to make you better organized and at the same time, make you look and sound professional on stage. To those who already consider themselves professional, these rules are the norm or nothing out of the ordinary. To the newbies just starting in the business, they are specifically design to make you an asset to any comedy venue, pro or non-pro.
Fast $100 Competition Rules and Terms. Fast $100 Competitions are open only to open mikers with little or no experience only. Voting is done exclusively by the audience only.
Featured Artist must have a minimum of 15 mins of solid material and minimum of 2 years continues stage experience. Being a regular performer at the Scruffy Murphy’s also helps but is not necessary. Open Mikers (Rising Comics) will be given up to 6 mins of stage time. We no longer put up the photos of comics on our home page due to the new cancel culture. Adding, removing, adding , removing cancelling comics photos daily, is to time consuming and we find total un-necessary. We’ve also found 90-95% of comics don’t promote themselves or the rooms they perform in anyway, so for us to go through the trouble of adding or removing cancelling comics images daily or weekly ,we’ve decide to stop adding images. We now do what 80% of the industry is doing already and that’s promote the MC or main headliner Here is the rate of progression: Open Mikers (Rising Comics) start in our Thursday Night Catch A Rising Comic Show (6 min sets). Once your skills are fined tuned with a solid 10-15 mins set, we move you to a Featured Artist (12 Min sets) and from there, hopefully join the BonkerZ Comedy Circuit- (20 Min sets) All BonkerZ Comedy Circuit Spots are paid gigs Payment– MC Slots are 2 days (Thur/Fri) or (Thur only) or (Friday only) and are paid spots. Final amount varies due to covid room restrictions. We have a small theatre so we encourage MC’s to work with BonkerZ to spread the word when they are performing. The more people there, the more money they are paid. Those who do no promoting will probably make the minimum. Last Minute Cancellations or no shows, once performance dates are confirmed, will cause you to lose any other confirmed dates you may have for the next 3 months and removes you from the paid Comedy Circuit spots, plus make it harder in the future to secure spots. We look for reliable comics to put in the comedy circuit and our special event shows across the country, they are paid gigs. If you have a history of cancellations, you won’t be placed in special events and in the paid BonkerZ Comedy Circuit. We take cancellations and no shows very serious and so do audience members who may show up to see you perform. Also, if you are given a spot and it’s your first BonkerZ spot, if you cancel that spot, you won’t be allowed back. The difference between our club and others is, we tell you up front what our cancellation rules are, the others that don’t tell u, they just don’t reply to your emails and don’t bother having you back. To All performers: If you want to give the best performance you can, We recommend not drinking before or during your performance. MC’s and Alcohol: We recommend if you want to be an MC, not to drink alcohol before or during your performance. We’re finding MC’s performance levels are tainted in regards to making announcements, time allocation and promos because of this. Remember it’s a paid gig, screwing up future show promotions, which are needed to keep bums on the seat and cutting other comics times because you’ve lost track of time, is unacceptable and not professional. If you do choose to drink and it affects your performance, you will not be allowed to MC again. MC’s have the responsibility to Know the up and coming events and promos, know the house rules, check in and brief all comics for the night of house rules. Please arrive no later then 6:50pm on Thursday Nights to brief the comics. If you can’t arrive at this time, please don’t request to be an MC. MC’s also have the right and responsibility to remove or cut short, comics time on stage if they see u struggling or having a major issue. 1 free guest allowed per performer (excludes special events) Please notify at-least 3 days before show of your guest name. We recommend sending your guests name when u are confirming your show appearance 1 week before. BonkerZ Comedy Club reserves the right to allow or decline a registration for any reason. This decision is final. Although all styles and forms of comedy are welcomed, and we do realize most comics use profanity we do ask that you keep profanity and vulgar language at the barest minimum. ANY material deemed racist, sexist, homophobic or anything that seriously offends your audience, could result in loss of future spots and/ or paid gigs. We understand most rooms allow you to pretty much say whatever you want, but we try to attract people old and young to our shows. We find, the older crowds aren’t really into a lot of profanity and crude humor and believe me, they let us know. We ask that all material be original. Any material found to be stolen or taken from another source will RESULT in your IMMEDIATE dismissal. Also No joke notes on your hand, legs, elbows or paper. This looks very unprofessional on stage. If u don’t have it memorized, don’t use it! if you are booked on as a Featured Artist (15 – 20 min spots) and are seen using notes, u will be moved to open mike status ( 6 mins on stage where u will have to book on line for each new spot). BonkerZ Featured Artist Club is not an open mic room. Please don’t lean, hold or pull on the mic stand or twist the plastic microphone holder during your performance. If you need the stand for your performance, thats fine, if not, please move it out of your way You will be given a light when your time is up, going over that time could cancel all future dates and spots. So when U see the Light, exit stage right! At BonkerZ Comedy Club Australia, we’re not concerned with having all open mikers, semi-pros or pros, perform in our clubs, only the best or those striving to be the best. All performers will receive an SMS via mobile or EMAIL 1 week before show. Please reply to this sms ASAP. Failure to reply within 24 hours could result in your spot being given to another comic. We always confirm your confirmation email once you reply. If you don’t receive a confirmation email, it means we haven’t received your reply and you’ll need to send it again. This is our way of confirming your attendance. If you don’t receive an SMS by Tuesday the week of your performance, you’ll need to call our office (02) 95472578 to confirm your spot. We have several comics on stand by waiting for stage time, if we don’t hear from you, we need to fill that spot Equipment supplied on the night will be a stage, Circle Spot light, up to two microphones and stands, 1 input cable for an instrument and CD facilities. Please discuss your requirements with our MD (Music Director) prior to your appearance on stage. No request for additional equipment or changes will be accepted on the night of your performance.
