By Nate Williams
If you’ve spent any time wandering the streets of Williamstown over the years, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Ned McVicar juggling away on the side of the footpath. A natural-born performer, Ned’s moving up to a bigger league: the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF).
Ned is one of six young comedians featured in Pilot, a show giving up-and-coming talent their first proper crack at a festival run and bringing the fresh, chaotic humour of Gen Z into the comedy spotlight. And if there’s anyone who embodies that chaos, it’s Ned. His comedy blends dark humour with high-tech elements, creating a show that’s as surprising as it is hilarious.
Pilot was founded by Ethan Gallagher and Dylan McBurney, who first met at a Gen Z comedy talent show and saw a gap for that demographic in the MICF’s programming.
“It was the first time I experienced our generation’s humour on stage. I’ve never laughed so hard at live comedy,” said Dylan.
Determined to bring that same energy to the festival, Ethan and Dylan created Pilot to help young comedians transition from short open-mic sets to longer performances. In an industry where getting stage time can be tough, Pilot provides not just a slot in the festival, but creative development, production support, and a platform for comedians to take real risks with their material.
For Ned, it’s also a moment of personal triumph. “I just can’t wait for people to see what we’ve been putting together,” he says.
If his childhood is anything to go by, you can expect him to push boundaries. As a kid he once hung from a second-story balcony just to win a game of hide and seek. These days his risks are purely creative— a blend of surreal, absurdist, and high-tech comedy that keeps audiences guessing and tests the limits of what comedy can be.
Pilot runs at DoubleTree by Hilton till April 6 and you can catch Ned’s performances on April 2nd and 4th.
