This year we have been fortunate to secure three of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's major headline acts the week before they head south: Nina Conti (UK), Arj Barker (US) and Tim Minchin.

I have never been able to get a seat at Tim or Arj's Melbourne shows, as they are always sold out. I caught Nina Conti at last year's Melbourne Festival and was completely blown away by her performance. She was at the top of my wish list to bring to The Big Joke.

Patrons of the festival will have the rare opportunity of seeing these international headliners in an intimate regional setting, where city counterparts will have to line up to get a hussle for a spot in a rooms that hold over 1000!

This year's Big Joke has moved from early Feb to the last weekend in March to co-incide with the week between Adelaide and Melbourne Comedy Festival thus allowing us to secure primo talent.

We are thankful for all the community support we have received from local businesses and media groups, and we are particularly grateful for the support of NSW Tourism, having secured a grant through Regional Tourism to promote The Big Joke to regional NSW and into Qld.

We kicked the program off this year with a series of launches in Casino, Yamba & Currumbin and continue with our aim to build internal tourism during the shoulder season. This year all events are taking place at The Bangalow A&I Hall, with no events competing, so there's no excuse not to see everything - except of course you might blow a Fu fu valve. I hope you enjoy the program as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Mandy Nolan
Festival Director