COMEDY can be a tricky business, as the official launch and cocktail function for the 2015 Canberra Comedy Festival at Dendy Cinemas last night suggested.

The teaser performances from comedians Cam Knight, Rhys Nicholson and Sparrow Folk, all of whom will perform at the festival from March 17-22, showed just how brave and foolhardy comedians have to be when they try their comic gambits.

Canberra’s lauded folk duo Sparrow Folk, for instance, seemed ill-at-ease as they tried out their more intimate form of humour on a broader than usual audience. Acerbically witty, velvet-jacketed Nicholson, by contrast, had the audience in the palms of his exceedingly active hands, while Knight tried some condescendingly unfunny jokes about Griffith, NSW, suggesting  a hit and miss approach to getting laughs.

But what of it? It’s a comedy festival, not high art, and artistic director, Benjamin Stevenson happily talked up the event, which he promised the large crowd of sponsors and keen supporters would be “bigger and better than ever,” featuring over 60 shows at Canberra Theatre Centre, ANU Arts Centre, Novotel Canberra, Teatro Vivaldi and The Civic Pub.

The opening night gala in the Canberra Theatre had sold out, he announced, so they’d be staging a simultaneous (same acts, different order presumably) gala in the Canberra Playhouse for which tickets went on sale yesterday.

That’s an impressive development for the event which began in 2013 and which last year claimed audience numbers of 7,600.

Pink would be the festival theme, Stevenson said, and no expense would be spared to hang “a giant banner the size of Europe” in the Canberra Centre so everybody would know about it. In a further promotional link, the event would be part of the larger festival, “Enlighten.”

And the acts? As a film promo showed us, The Umbilical Brothers will be back with their new show “KiDSHoW (Not Suitable for Children)”, John Safran will present a performance and Q & A based around his book, “Murder in Mississippi,” and international ‘superstars’ like Jason Byrne (Ireland), Mike Wilmot (Canada), Urzila Carlson (South Africa/NZ) will be seen, along with Australian comics like Ronny Chieng, Akmal Saleh and Cal Wilson.

As well, Matty Grey will present a children’s comedy program “Game on 2” and locals Harris Stuckey, Chris Endrey, Sophie Rutzou, Toby Halligan, Andrew and Danny Bensley and Sparrow Folk, will perform. Presenters will be local and the late night festival club in the Canberra Theatre’s Courtyard Studio will be free to anyone buying a ticket.

The 2015 Canberra Comedy Festival, at Canberra Theatre Centre, ANU Arts Centre, Novotel Canberra, Teatro Vivaldi and The Civic Pub, March 17-22, bookings to canberracomedyfestival.com.au