Rachel Berger is one of Australia’s most highly regarded, adept, and adaptive comedic talents working variously as a comedian, broadcaster, novelist, columnist, agitator and television entertainer. Her material encompasses contemporary lifestyles, offering an hilarious and poignant expose of human foibles. Her dynamic presence and engagingly sharp observations have made her an extremely popular performer both live and on television, across Australia and overseas.
Current Work
Rachel believes that laughter is a powerful tool able to communicate a powerful message. She’s appeared at events as diverse as hosting a public forum on Climate Change with world-leading Climate Change expert Stephen Schneider to writing and performing in Diversity Works, an educational video for the Council for Equal Opportunity in Employment and as a special guest performer at a Positive Living Expo for Women with the overall aim to reduce the harm associated with gambling.
With her unique ability to connect with an audience, Rachel regularly works as a keynote speaker and MC. Currently Rachel is working on her second novel for Bonnier publishing. Her first novel Whaddya Mean You’re Allergic To Rubber published by Penguin in 2001 sold out faster than Judas.
Rachel's high public profile has done much to establish the position of women in comedy providing a distinctive voice for women's opinions and viewpoints.
Previous Experience
TelevisionRachel has thirty years experience across a range of clients and organisations. She’s featured in Stop Laughing This is Serious, a recent comedy documentary on ABC TV detailing the history of comedy in Australia. She’s appeared across all television networks in a variety of shows such as The Glass House, GMA, Good News Week, World Series Debating, The Big Gig, Hey Hey It’s Saturdayand Denton. She has also Co-hosted Comic Relief, a live to air special on the Nine Network and is a regular co-host & presenter on ABC Radio 774
Journalism:She’s also been a regular columnist for a number of publications including The Age, Sunday Age, Sunday Herald Sun as well as national magazines such as New Woman and Rolling Stone.
Talking Points
The Power of Laughter: If your Enemy is Laughing how can he Bludgeon you to Death?
The life skills that a comedian masters are those that are fundamental to success in the corporate world-resilience, confidence, creativity, self-awareness and of course, the ability to laugh at yourself. Rachel shares these skills through her own life journey as the child of refugees, an immigrant Australian and a compete klutz. Her trials and triumphs from being crap at any sport to being bullied for not being able to speak English and the anxiety of finally getting on stage to perform stand up comedy is a story of resilience and tenacity. Oh and it’s hilarious!
The Power of Laughter: If your Enemy is Laughing how can he Bludgeon you to Death?
Laughter in the Workplace: How Important is Humour to Surviving and Thriving at Work?
Workplaces are continually changing, as are methods of work and how employees are required to do their job. Although it’s essential that productivity is always improving, it shouldn’t be at the cost of diminished focus and professional commitment. Laughter in the Workplace: How Important is Humour to Surviving and Thriving at Work?
A manager who uses humour creates a safe environment for discussion thereby delivering the opportunity for everyone to sift through what feeds his or her anxieties and prejudices.
Rachel shows you how to uncover the funny side of any situation. This is a rare and unique opportunity to draw on Rachel’s thirty years of experience to help you understand what makes YOU funny and how to use your ‘funny’ to shift the mood and be proactive rather than reactive.
Workplaces were really keen to go smoke-free when it meant they won a visit from Rachel Berger. She did a really good job putting across a serious message in a humorous way-everyone was enor ... keep reading The (Vic) Quit Campaign
Winner of the Gold Award for Comedy and Humour - Rachel Berger. She won on all the judges’ cards.
• Not only did you have the entire audience howling with laughter on the night, your experience, professionalism and guidance in the lead up to the event were invaluable to the committee. We are hugely appreciative of the amount of time and effort you put in to ensure that the whole night would be a success. We especially loved the way you thoroughly researched our industry before the night, and wove your understanding and insights into the performance. It was a rousing, hilarious and highly relevant kickstart to our conference.
We were very pleased with Rachel’s performance. Given only one hour’s preparation with us, she incorporated a great deal of information about the firm and notable characters within it. Absolutely everyone thought she was marvellous.
She sized up her audience wonderfully and presented just the right balance of sending up people without offending anyone.
Undeniably, Rachel's efforts and warmth served as a major contributory factor to the success of the evening.
You had the audience captivated. Your material was well researched and well targeted. You had our mostly male audience enchanted by your relaxed delivery and your insightful and hilarious commentary on our industry.
A delight to work with. Co-operative, humorous and got the message across. We really enjoyed working with Rachel.
Rachel’s approach to the performance was totally professional, from the time she started preparing to the final product, which exceeded our best expectations.
Rachel's presentation was funny and, especially important, it was relevant. We have been inundated with compliments on the success of these awards - and it is true to say that Rachel's performance made us, the client, look good.
Ms Berger gave a very entertaining and witty performance which engaged the audience and reflected well on the exhibition content. Ms Berger's routine was very appropriate to the occasion and was very professionally delivered - I would recommend Ms Berger as a performer at similar functions and would be very happy to use her services again.
Rachel Berger is the consummate performer - vibrant, entertaining and totally in tune with her audience. She was definitely the highlight of the evening for us and it would be our pleasure to welcome her back to a future venue.
Rachel was really helpful and good. Some comedians just do their standard material, but Rachel researched really well. And even against all the odds, when the ads on which she'd based a lot of material were unexpectedly NOT shown to the audience just before she came on, she had to 'wing it' and did really really well. She didn't even get precious, either, unlike some others…
Rachel Berger MC'd a large and hectic event - and she was fabulous! The time, energy and commitment Rachel put into the event helped to make it a huge success. To have serious matters spoken with good humour is an excellent achievement. The message really gets through - Rachel Berger was fantastic. Personally, I haven’t laughed so much in such a long time. Rachel was a delight to work with and I would recommend her for any kind of MC role.
Not only did you have the entire audience howling with laughter on the night, your experience, professionalism and guidance in the lead up to the event were invaluable to the committee. We are hugely appreciative of the amount of time and effort you put in to ensure that the whole night would be a success. We especially loved the way you thoroughly researched our industry before the night, and wove your understanding and insights into the performance. It was a rousing, hilarious and highly relevant kick-start to our conference.
It is the offbeat observation, the incisive knack of showing up everyday events for the ludicrous pantomimes they really are that separate the women from the girls. In this department Rachel Berger is a real Star...
I have received no shortage of positive feedback, praising your affability, quick wit and choice of comedic anecdotes which complemented the themes and tone of the day perfectly.
Not only did you have the entire audience howling with laughter on the night, your experience, professionalism and guidance in the lead up to the event were invaluable to the committee. We are hugely appreciative of the amount of time and effort you put in to ensure that the whole night would be a success. We especially loved the way you thoroughly researched our industry before the night, and wove your understanding and insights into the performance. It was a rousing, hilarious and highly relevant kickstart to our conference.
Rachel was professional and easy to work with. She won over a room full of senior executives and engineers with her natural style, sharp, funny and relevant observations and her ability to read the audience.
Rachel’s professional approach to the whole night was wonderful. She made a room full of journalists and media, sit up, listen and laugh…..that’s no easy feat in anyone’s book.
Your wonderful MCing contributed significantly to making the ceremony both memorable and celebratory while not minimising or trivialising the very serious topic of family violence. Your skilled approach kept the audience engaged and created an event with lots of movement, light and shade. Our steering committee is indebted to you for your thoughtful suggestions and technical advice that assisted us in making the event flow smoothly and professionally.
Your engaging, passionate and thoroughly professional approach to what you do is to be commended. We were particularly impressed with your organisation and attention to detail with regard to the event as a whole. The shrieks of laughter throughout your performance and thunderous applause at the end are testimony to how entertaining you were. Without exception, everyone in the room fell about in fits of laughter, tears in their eyes and holding their bellies as they tried to regain some form of composure. We would absolutely recommend you to others attempting to organise a memorable evening. The performance exceeded our wildest expectations!
She scored more nines and tens on the audience satisfaction scale than a Russian ice skater at the Winter Olympics. Rachel was considerate of our theme and incorporated it smoothly into her routine. I believe the evening was a success because she had the ability to become a local for a night and relate to our audience on a personal level.
