There is very little financial support for up and coming comedy writers, let alone comedy writers who are still in high school. Trying to get paid for your work is the hardest thing to achieve for any comedy writer, especially when you’re starting out.

In school, class clowns get a bad wrap. I know this from personal experience. But the encouragement of a few people that it was okay to embrace this side of myself made the world of difference.

For a couple of months now, I’ve been running a comedy writing competition for New Zealand high school students, in conjunction with LearnCOACH. It’s called the NCEA Comedy Writing Competition.
We pay $50 every week to the student who can write the funniest one-liner about high school in under 140 characters.
Students submit their entries here.

I want to show New Zealand high school students that not only can you be funny while you’re still in school, you can get paid to do it.

Even the smallest payment for your work makes a huge difference to your confidence when you’re starting out.

Here are some of the winners with their prizes:

The response has been pretty remarkable and this article covers it fairly well.