Global award-winning comedians to see at Melbourne International Comedy Festival
If you needed any proof the Melbourne International Comedy Festival attracts the world’s biggest stars, check out these global award winners.
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If you needed any proof the Melbourne International Comedy Festival attracts the world’s biggest stars, check out these global award winners.
These are the pick of the stars who have the trophies to show for their efforts, having scooped major international awards.
ULTIMATE 2019 MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL GUIDE
NEWBIES AND RISING STARS TO WATCH
BRITISH AND IRISH COMEDIANS YOU MUST SEE
JAMES ACASTER
Won the Chortle Award in 2015 for Best Show and Best Breakthrough Act with Recognise at the prestigious Chortle Awards, which celebrate the best in comedy over the previous 12 months for comedians currently working in the UK.
James Acaster, Cold Lasagna Hate Myself 1999, April 9-April 21, ACMI & Melbourne Town Hall. Book tickets
TOM ALLEN
Known for his hyperbolic comedy, Tom Allen’s camp razor-sharp storytelling helped him win the BBC New Comedy Award in 2005. He will make his debut solo tour of Australia.
Tom Allen Absolutely, March 28-April 21, Greek Centre Mykonos. Book tickets
SIMON AMSTELL
While the British star hasn’t picked up the gongs for his stand-up shows, he has scooped a swag of awards for his work on UK comedy show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He won the 2006 Royal Television Society Award for Best Entertainment performance and in 2007 won two British Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Entertainment Series for NMTB.
Simon Amstell, What Is This?, April 9-21, Arts Centre Fairfax Studio. Book tickets
MARIA BAMFORD
Stephen Colbert’s favourite comedian, Maria Bamford, draws on her own battles with depression and anxiety in her routines and in 2014, she won the American Comedy Award for Best Club Comic.
Maria Bamford, The Irrelevant Redundancy, April 9-April 13, The Forum Downstairs. Book tickets
DANNY BHOY
Since his Australian debut 16 years ago, the affable Scot has taken his observational storytelling on sellout tours around the world. But before he had ventured to these shores, Bhoy won The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award, Britain’s biggest competition for comedy newcomers.
Danny Bhoy, Age of Fools, March 27-April 7, Hamer Hall. Book tickets
OUR REVIEW OF DANNY BHOY ★★★★½
JORDAN BROOKES
The Brit is set to make his Australian debut and comes off winning the Comedian’s Comedian Award at the 2018 Chortle Awards. He first came to attention when he won the Welsh Unsigned Comedy Award in 2012.
Jordan Brookes, Bleed, March 28-April 21, Melbourne Town Hall Cloak Room. Book tickets
LARRY DEAN
Larry Dean Dean scooped the Scottish Comedian of the Year and Bath Comedy Festival’s New Act of the Year at just 23 and has continued his rise ever since, collecting the 2016 Amused Moose Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival for his show, Farcissist.
Larry Dean, Bampot, March 28-April 21, ACMI Below, Fed Square. Book tickets
KITTY FLANAGAN
In 2005, one of the doyennes of Australia’s comics won Best Short Comedy and Audience Choice gongs at the New York Short Film Festival Awards for her work writing and directing Dating Ray Fenwick. She returns for an encore of her successful show, Smashing, from last year.
Kitty Flanagan, Smashing, April 4-20, The Palms at Crown Casino. Book tickets
OUR KITTY FLANAGAN REVIEW ★★★★★
FLO & JOAN
The winners of 2018’s Best Music & Variety Award at the UK’s Chortle Awards, Flo & Joan announced themselves with viral hit, the 2016 Song, which reeled off a long list of terrible events from that ill-fated year. The Dempsey sisters — Nicola and Rosie — have also won Best Musical Comedy Show at the 2018 Leicester Comedy Festival and Musical Comedy Act at the 2017 What’s On London Awards.
Flo & Joan, Alive On Stage, March 28-April 21, Melbourne Town Hall Powder Room. Book tickets
PAUL FOOT
The delightfully eccentric Paul Foot is a BBC New Comedy Award and Daily Telegraph (UK) Open Mike winner. The multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed Brit returns to Melbourne after a two-year hiatus.
Paul Foot, Image Conscious, March 28-April 21, The Famous Spiegeltent at Arts Centre Melbourne. Book tickets
FRINGE WIVES CLUB
Five fierce femmes — Victoria Falconer, Tessa Waters, Rowena Hutson, Laura Frew and Sharnema Nougar — star in Glittergrass, with storytelling, slapstick comedy and a killer soundtrack. The quintet won Spirit of the Fringe Award at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Fringe Wives Club, Glittergrass, March 28-April 21. Book tickets
HANNAH GADSBY
Two years ago, the Barry Award-winning Tasmanian took a break after her powerful show about homophobia, Nanette, was announced joint winner of the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Comedy Award. She returns with a new offering, Douglas.
Hannah Gadsby, Douglas, March 27-April 7, Hamer Hall & Arts Centre Playhouse. Book tickets
OUR HANNAH GADSBY REVIEW ★★★★½
KANAN GILL
Indian stand-up Kanan Gill entered and won a competition called Punchline Bangaloe and another at the Comedy Store in Mumbai while working as a software engineer. It was then he then quit his job to pursue a career in comedy.
Kanan Gill, Teetar, April 19-April 21, Arts Centre Melbourne. Book tickets
JOHN HASTINGS
John Hastings has been performing stand-up since 2006, winning the Montreal Comedy Festival Home-grown Comedy Competition. In 2012, he picked up the COCA Comedian Of The Year Award and then moved to London. Outside of stand-up, Hastings wrote the short film Who is Hannah, which won both the People’s Choice Award and the Jury Prize at the Lakeshorts Film Festival.
John Hastings, Float Like A Butterfly, John Hastings Like A Bee, April 1-April 15, Melbourne Town Hall Cloak Room. Book tickets
BARNIE JUANCAN
Part stand-up comedy, part surreal theatre, Barnie Juancan explores the lonely life of a tap in a Fairfield Park public toilet. Juancan clinched the Fringe Genius Award at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe.
Barnie Juancan, Tap Head, March 28-April 18, ACMI Games Room. Book tickets
THE KAGOOLS
British silent comedy double act, The Kagools, brings circus stunts and impromptu strongwoman contests to the stage in Cirque du Kagool. The pair won the Amused Moose Comedy Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe.
The Kagools, Cirque du Kagool, March 28-April 7, The Coopers Malthouse Beckett Theatre. Book tickets
SARAH KEYWORTH
The Nottingham comedian’s Dark Horse won the coveted Edinburgh Fringe accolade —the Herald Angel Award — for her debut show. Dark Horse is Keyworth’s semi-autobiographical story about dealing with her own sexuality and gender identity.
Sarah Keyworth, Dark Horse, March 28-April 21, Melbourne Town Hall. Book tickets
LANO AND WOODLEY
Back for a return flight with their hugely successful comeback show, Fly, from last year, the slapstick legends tasted success way back in 1994 when they won the Edinburgh Fringe Perrier Comedy Award.
Lano & Woodley, Fly, April 16-21, Arts Centre Melbourne Playhouse. Book tickets
OUR LANO AND WOODLEY REVIEW ★★★★½
DEMI LARDNER
Deeming herself the “horrid little troll in boy skin”, rising Australian star Demi Lardner landed the Underbelly Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe. The live-wire South Australian is back with her new show, Ditch Witch 800.
Demi Lardner Ditch Witch 800, March 28-April 21, Greek Centre Parthenon. Book tickets
DAVID O’DOHERTY
The Irishman has been a fixture on the global stand-up/sit-down circuit since claiming the prestigious if-comedy Award (formerly the Perrier Award) at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2008 for his show Let’s Comedy, which featured “a relationship in text messages, tunes played on a three-foot electronic keyboard, and a badger attack”.
In 1999, the decorated Irishman won Channel 4’s So You Think You’re Funny Comedy Competition at the Edinburgh Fringe has collected the Hot Press Irish Comedian of the Year in 2003 and 2010.
David O’Doherty, Ultrasound, March 28-April 21. The Forum Upstairs. Book tickets
GARRY STARR
Damien Warren-Smith, aka Garry Starr, had an impressive 2018 on the back of his anarchic drama masterclass in his Melbourne Comedy Festival debut with wins in Greater Manchester and Brighton Fringe awards.
Garry Starr, Conquers Troy, March 28-April 21. Book tickets
TIM VINE
“I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.” It was this joke that landed Tim Vine the prize for funniest joke of the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe. Four years later, the British one-liner king won the award again. Vine broke the Guinness World Record for most jokes told in an hour in 2004 with 499, beating the previous record of 362.
Tim Vine, Sunset Milk Idiot, March 28-April 21, ACMI Below, Fed Square. Book tickets
MARK WATSON
Bristol comic Mark Watson picked up a special jury prize, the Panel Prize, at the 2006 if.comedy awards (formerly the Perrier Awards) for the show that best captured the comedy spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Mark Watson, The Infinite Show, March 28-April 21, Melbourne Town Hall Supper Room. Book tickets
What to see at the comedy festival this weekend
From a big-name benefit in support of Christchurch terror victims to a chat show with a difference, these are the best offerings at the Melbourne comedy festival this weekend.
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We’ve just passed the halfway mark of the 33rd Melbourne comedy festival. Mikey Cahill takes us through the bangers and clangers so far — who has excelled or repelled?