Having started three years ago as a unique offering in Canberra’s comedy landscape, the Fearless Comedy Gala has subsequently gone on to establish itself as a magnificent night where comedians and the community rally against family violence.
Founder Juliet Moody says each year the gala event keeps growing.
“It started as a small group of volunteers with a dream … We wanted people to become fearless, and stand up to family violence.
“Each year we try and grow the event, we want to make it a real celebration of being fearless, we want to make it a real fun experience for the audience,” she says.
“It seems like an unlikely mix, but comedy is the thing that really grew me back out of myself after fleeing my situation.
“It helped me bring back my identity, my confidence and sense of purpose.
“Family violence impacts right across the board, and so therefore we should be talking about this in every arena – sports, politics and mainstream media and comedy.
“For us, it’s about using comedy as a platform to shed a light on it, we’re not using it as material, but as a platform to say we know people love coming to comedy.
“We thought why not use this as an event for people to stop and think ‘what can I be doing to prevent this in my community’,” she says.
This year’s gala will be comedian Dane Simpson’s third time with Fearless; he says he got on board initially because it was a great experience for him as an up and coming comic at the time.
“For somebody at the level I was at the time to be sharing the stage with those incredible comedians was phenomenal.”
He says the gala brings together a group of comedians that represent a broad range of skills and time in the industry.
“Everybody’s style is very different and they’re all very good at what they do, which makes doing an event like this very exciting.”
The Fearless Comedy Gala will be held at Canberra Theatre on Thursday 4 October 7.30pm; canberratheatrecentre.com.au
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