It was no laughing matter when "Australia's friendliest comedian" delivered some of the best lines to help keep a pensioner from prison for growing a large marijuana crop. 
A Melbourne judge considered the evidence of the comedian Martin Ralph and another character witness so impressive it assisted his decision not to impose an immediate jail term on 70-year-old John Braybrook.
Facing a maximum 25 years imprisonment for cultivating a commercial quantity of marjiuana, Braybrook - working class battler, former circus clown and father figure to young Aboriginal footballers - admitted he grew the crop for financial reasons.
The County Court heard on Wednesday that police found a sophisticated hydroponic system at his rented house in   October, 2014, with 24 plants weighing 27 kilograms of usable material.
Prosecutor Alex Albert, who said Braybrook paid a man $300 to sort the plants, submitted that jail was warranted given he grew the crop for profit.
Defence lawyer Richard Revill said that Braybrook, supported in court by his three children, granddaughter and numerous friends, left school at 15 and worked numerous unskilled jobs until at 30 he became a stand-up comic and circus clown which created issues with alcohol and
 marjiuana.
Mr Revill said Braybrook's former indigenous wife created a "strong Aboriginal theme to his life" that led to his work in Melbourne for young men from remote communities.
At his age, he said, imprisonment would be "confronting" and would leave him a "sitting duck" in custody.
In evidence, Mr Ralph - who promotes himself as "Australia's friendliest comedian" - spoke of how his great friend "took me under his wing" in the late 1980s when Braybrook was MC and manager of the Back of Bourke theatre restaurant and provided him work, coaching and mentoring.
Mr Ralph said he was "staggered" that Braybrook, who lost work during a downturn in the entertainment business, committed the offence, but believed that he was more worried for his family than himself.
Brian Sanaghan, another character witness, told of Braybrook's "crucial" work as an "alternative father" for young Aboriginal men and boys who arrived in Melbourne to play football. 
Braybrook, of Pascoe Vale South, pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of marijuana and to the theft of electricity In his sentencing remarks, judge Richard Maidment described the hydroponic system as "not unsophisticated" but a "messy set up" and regarded as relevant the quantity of marijuana grown.
Judge Maidment said Braybrook was "in many a respects of exemplary character" and someone who had made "significant contributions in many community-based areas".
The character witnesses spoke "eloquently", he told him, and "illuminated many of the good qualities you had and still possess."
In not for their evidence and written character references, he would have, given the amount of the drug and that Braybrook was the "profiteer", followed his normal practice and imposed an immediate prison term.
Judge Maidment, however, felt that a two-year community corrections order addressed the justice needed in the case and provided sufficient punishment.
Apart from mandatory conditions, Braybrook was also ordered to do 450 hours of unpaid work.