Funny audition pieces from Shakespeare, Wilde, Shaw, and beyond — the kind that actually land in the room.
Most comedic monologues fail in auditions because the actor "plays the funny." The pieces on this page are funny on the page; your job is to play the character's actual problem dead-seriously and let the audience find the comedy themselves. Wilde, Shaw, and Shakespeare's comedies all work this way — Benedick is genuinely panicking about being in love, and that is what makes him funny.
from The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Bracknell • Oscar Wilde
from As You Like It
Jaques • William Shakespeare
from The Seagull
Trigorin • Anton Chekhov
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Bottom • William Shakespeare
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Oberon • William Shakespeare
from Pygmalion
Eliza Doolittle • George Bernard Shaw
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Puck • William Shakespeare
from The Glass Menagerie
Amanda • Tennessee Williams
from Twelfth Night
Viola • William Shakespeare
from As You Like It
Rosalind • William Shakespeare
from Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano • Edmond Rostand
from Romeo and Juliet
Mercutio • William Shakespeare
from The Taming of the Shrew
Katherine • William Shakespeare
from Arms and the Man
Raina • George Bernard Shaw
from Pygmalion
Henry Higgins • George Bernard Shaw
When you are building an audition book, having a strong comedic piece is non-optional. Casting directors looking for ensemble work, sitcom auditions, or anything indie-quirky will often ask for "something funny" as a contrast piece. Bring something they have not heard a thousand times. The really famous comedy speeches — Shylock's "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" — get worn out. Pick something from the same playwright that lets the casting director feel like they discovered it.
A useful test in rehearsal: would a friend who has never read the play laugh at the eighth line? If yes, the piece has actual comedy in the writing and you can play it straight. If no, you might be picking a piece that needs the surrounding scene to be funny — that almost never works in a 90-second audition.
We have organized this page by piece. Filter by length below to find one-minute and two-minute options, both of which are standard audition lengths.