Something extraordinary is on the horizon—keep your eyes wide open for the signs, your ears tuned to the whispers and your heart ready to leap. The moment is coming!
In January 2024 after swallowing enough lithium to power four electric cars across the Nullarbor and doing several interviews with an awesome panel of television experts, my concept Television Seriously Funny won the AACTA Reg Grundy Award. This award with a combined $50K prize is offered to “the individual or team with the best pitch for a new and innovative unscripted format. With the largest prize of its kind in the world, the Australian Academy in partnership with Grundy Media, is dedicated to fostering new and creative thinking in screen entertainment and expediting the development of innovative and fresh productions.”
What a privilege and a responsibility.
https://tvtonight.com.au/2024/01/rachel-berger-wins-aacta-reg-grundy-award.html
Seriously Funny wasn’t spawned from the way I look at things, but from the things I choose to not look away from. The AACTA Reg Grundy Award created the opportunity for me to garner all my experience as a comedian and create a Television show where I guide a group of ordinary people albeit with extraordinary experiences, through a six-hour stand-up comedy workshop, to delivering a five-minute stand-up comedy routine, that same night in front of a live audience.
Through 2024 I navigated the labyrinth of making television. I’m grateful to AACTA and the talented and generous judges for their supportive encouragement and productive feedback. The mentoring sessions provided clarity and a headache, but worth every milligram of medication.
Finally, in September 2025 with Jodi Boylan (Director), Mel Rogan (Line Producer), Tom Chapman (DOP), Bree Sanders, Tom Roberts, Tobi Armbruster and Francois Cumunel (Editor) AND the brilliant Joke-doctor Trevor Marmalade we filmed the workshop and ‘performance’ which will be edited into a proof of concept.
Our seven ‘comedians’ are not comedians. In this instance they are First Responders who have lived experience of trauma as a result of their service to the community.