1Cover Travel insurance is running comedy competition The One Thing, offering a huge first prize of $10,000 to the entry deemed funniest by an expert comedy panel, with two runners-up will receiving $1500 each.

Anyone who fancies themselves a comedian can upload a short video to the competition website answering the question “What’s the one thing you shouldn’t do on your holiday?” Contestants can enter solo, with a partner, or with a team. All the entries will be watched and judged by a panel of well-known Australian comedians, including the host of SBS documentary Where are you really from? Michael Hing, Hit 107’s Amos Gill and Today FM’s Ciel Stowe.

The judges and their responses will be filmed while they watch all the entries, Gogglebox style. Joining the judging panel of veteran comedians will be the Managing Director of 1Cover, Eddie Feltham. Mr Feltham said, “the competition is a great opportunity to give aspiring and established comedians an opportunity to show off. We created this event to add a little fun to a typically stale and conservative industry, share some funny stories with our customers, and get people thinking about travel insurance. Plus, we get to watch hundreds of jokes and stories, which is never going to be dull!”

Feltham says he wants people to have fun with the competition and sees events like this as a way of supporting the comedy industry in Australia. “I think the Australian comedy scene is amazing and have been a regular at the Comedy Store in Sydney and other comedy venues for 15 years. I have huge admiration for anyone who is prepared to put themselves on stage to perform comedy. Apart from the prize money, this competition is a great platform for amateur and professional comedians to be seen by over a million Australians through our social media platforms.”

Readers may also be interested in this story on a local director’s new comedy series.