When people hear about Nick Gleeson's comedy business, they naturally think of his brother Tom.
Yes, Tom Gleeson is one of Australia's most successful stand-ups, hosts the ABC's high-rating Hard Quiz and notoriously lampooned the Logie Awards while gripping the gold.
But the acerbic comedian wasn't the inspiration for Central West Comedy, Nick Gleeson's booming venture that brings big name comics to the bush.
Soon after he and wife Ruby moved from Sydney to Orange, they noticed a desperate dearth of live comedy west of the NSW Blue Mountains.
"I just said, 'Why don't we change this?'" Gleeson told AAP.
"I've been going to comedy for a very long time. It's just a coincidence that Tom Gleeson is my brother."
So the couple launched a monthly comedy night at their bustling cafe in central Orange in 2017, with Tom taking the stage at Factory Espresso at the end of a national tour.
"I've been doing all the capitals and I'm finishing at a cafe in Orange. At my brother's cafe," the comedian drily quipped to the local paper.
Gleeson had been concerned about suggestions of nepotism when he branched out into comedy but his straight-talking brother told him: "Who cares?"
It turned out the brotherly connection only went so far anyway.
The couple worked for years to build up trust with leading comedians and agents, eventually attracting a steady stream of headliners to their eatery through reliable hospitality.
By early 2020, Aaron Chen, Tony Martin, Akmal, Matt Okine and Sam Simmons had all performed on their little stage next to the kitchen.
While touring art exhibitions, theatre, Shakespeare and live music have long been mainstays in regional Australia's cultural life, comedy is burgeoning.
Melbourne and Sydney's comedy festival showcases will both tour the regions from May, while Gleeson's work is opening the door for other local events like the Lithgow Comedy Festival in late March.
The demand is strong enough that Gleeson sold Factory Espresso in 2024 to focus on bringing comedy to the country.
Since then, he has managed to lure the likes of Dave Hughes, Michael Hing, Tom Ballard, Lizzy Hoo, Dilruk Jayasinha and Dave Thornton to regional venues.
The performers often use the smaller shows to test new material, while audiences are appreciative of a big act coming to town.
"The country audiences are tougher, (because) it's a rare thing," Gleeson says.
"They won't just give their laughs away."
Veteran comedian Gary Eck, who is headlining the Lithgow Comedy Festival, said regional shows were an affordable way for stand-ups to develop their sets and country crowds were always enthusiastic.
Comics also tended to leap at any chance to perform on any scale, Eck says.
"Comedy is the one profession where people will happily do it for nothing just to get runs on the board," he says.
"No other profession is going to give you that. Labourers don't knock on your door and say, 'Hey do you mind if I get some experience and re-do your back shed?'
"Whereas comedians, it's a passion-driven thing, you're compelled to do it, so you've got to go where it's happening."
As more people escape the cities for country Australia, led by millennials, new cultural scenes are emerging.
Lithgow Comedy Festival organiser and local councillor Tom Evangelidis moved from Sydney to the mining town at the foot of the Blue Mountains in recent years.
He is working hard to change the tired stereotypes that hang over the community of 20,000.
The comedy festival, which is in its third year, is one way to do that.
"Lithgow has had a pretty bad rap for a long time - it's always been viewed as working class and just a place to drive through," Evangelidis says.
"It's done its fair share of heavy lifting for the country and state.
"Now it's someone else's turn, it's time for Lithgow to smell the roses."
* Rhys Nicholson and Kirsty Webeck will perform at Orange's LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Festival on March 21.
* The Lithgow Comedy Festival runs over the weekend of March 29-30.
* Pete Helliar and Ellen Briggs have shows in Armidale, Tamworth, Inverell, Dubbo, Bathurst, Orange and Molong in May.
