Heggie's to bring raw comedy

Luke Heggie never thought he would be a globe-trotting comedian but after winning the Australian Comedy competition RAW that is exactly what he became.

Heggie won the competition in 2010, at a time when his comedy was indeed raw – in fact, the first time he performed a comedy routine was at the contest’s first round.

“It was surreal to win the whole thing, I was 15 years older than anyone else in it so I wasn’t star struck but I have never done anything like it, ” he said.

“The first gig I ever did was a RAW gig. I was the only one shaking nervously before the event; everyone else was full of beans and seemed to know what they were doing.”

Heggie wasn’t nervous for long though, with the Brisbane-born Sydney labourer becoming one of the favourites and taking the competition out with what has been described as his mixed bag of ingenious one liners, delivered with minimal fuss and frills.

After the RAW win, Luke went to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as numerous dates in the United States.

“I am in a different situation because I have two kids so I don’t travel too much, I have been to Edinburgh once and to New York a couple of times, ” he said.

“Edinburgh was very tough; I have no ambitions to go back soon. It is tough to get people to come to your gig if no one knows who you are. We had some burly Scotsmen folding their arms staring at us.”

Heggie went from sell out crowds at the RAW comedy festival to a number of less-crowded gigs which he said was more of the norm.

“There is no science to how many people are going to come, so you just want to do the same show for five as you would do for 100, ” he said.

“My routine is just an extension of me.”

Heggie will perform at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre as a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow on May 30 and 31.