Pearl Salmon-Watson, Patti Fawcett and Haydn Oxenham competed in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Class Clown’s competition with Pearl and Patti winning their heat.

The duo will compete at the state finals this weekend with Pearl describing the competition as a nerve-wracking experience.

“On stage it wasn’t as scary but once you saw the competition you were kind of blown away because everyone is super funny,” she said.

The three young comedians have a long list of comedy acts that have influenced them including Russell Howard, Trevor Noah, Robin Williams, Kitty Flanagan, Black Adder, and Billy Connelly.

Pearl’s act focuses on the differences between growing up in England (where she lived for seven years) and Australia.

Patti got through after improvising and making her set up on the day.

“All speeches I do are improv, it’s how I work best because when write it down, I think about it too much,” she said.

“I had basic themes that I wanted to talk about like family and little kids TV shows.”

Haydn has a chance at a wild card spot in the finals with his teacher suggesting the 14-year-old try comedy.

“In the middle of class my teacher suggested it to me and I thought ‘why not give it a go, I’ve nothing to lose’,” he said.

“When I wrote something I thought was funny, it then led to other things.”