Brand new 2026 Melbourne Fringe shows
Three of Australian comedy’s most distinctive voices have locked in their Melbourne Fringe Festival 2026 seasons, all playing the Motley Bauhaus this September and October.
Award winner Bronwyn Kuss brings a work in progress to the Fringe, playing September 29 to October 4. True to its work-in-progress title, Kuss isn’t giving too much away about the show’s subject matter just yet. What audiences can expect is the dry, cutting delivery that’s built her reputation, having won the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Directors’ Choice Award and Pinder Prize, and picked up the 2025 AWGIE Award for Comedy – Stand-Up for her special “Sounds Good.” Brownyn can also be heard on Triple R’s Breakfasters.
Tom Ballard – In the Grand Scheme of Things
Fresh off touring “Be Funny Challenge (Impossible)” through Edinburgh and London, Tom Ballard returns home with a brand-new show for a limited six-night run, October 6 to 11. Tom is promising only that it’ll be “unlike anything he’s done before.” The self-styled Special Envoy For Comedy has picked up nominations for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Award and Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe, and is known for his politically sharp, high-energy stand-up.
Lazlo Steigenberger & Frank Woodley – The Festival of the Entire Universe
Frank Woodley teams up with “public intellectual” Lazlo Steigenberger for a run at the Motley Bauhaus from September 29 to October 11. Billed as an interview that “may alter everything you’ve ever thought or ever done,” the show sees Woodley playing guest interviewer opposite Steigenberger’s grand theories on SPACECLOCK1 and “Humanity’s Spinning Planet Denial.” Expect the show to run long — organisers note that if the interview finishes early, there will be padding.
Tickets for all three shows are on sale now.
