Melbourne Comedy Festival, a Recap

Every year at about this time, Melbourne Australia becomes the comedy capital of the world. As a matter of fact, The 2010 comedy festival Melbourne literally takes over this beautiful city with an enormous program of stand-up comedy, cabaret, theater, street performance, film, television, radio and visual arts.

This year, 2010, has continued this fine tradition with the inclusion of The Pyjama Men, Tom Ballard, Shaun Micallef, Josie Long, Phil Nichol, The Shambles, and much, much more.

Here’s a bit of history: The festival began in 1987 as the dream child of two hard working and self driven individuals: Barry Humphries and Peter Cook. Almost 25 years later, with attendances of over 450,000, it has grown to be Australia’s largest ticketed cultural event.

The Comedy Festival has become extremely popular, owing in part to the small ticket price of $24, and the fact that it’s venue is so accessible. Make no mistake, when the Melbourne Town Hall precinct is converted into a giant comedy hub, there is something for every comedy lover. It’s truly astounding how many comedy acts of all categories and all shapes and sizes that perform here. All of these acts perform for the sheer joy of doing so, and also for a chance to win the grand prize of $2,000.

As fun as the first few days were, the highlight of the festival was the final competition for the Barry award. This grand finale was truly an exciting event, with many quality acts vying for the coveted award.

Here were the nominees:

Asher Treleaven – Secret Door

Damian Callinan – The Merger: Sportsman’s Night 2

Josh Thomas – Surprise

Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane

The List Operators for Kids – More fun than a Wii

Wil Anderson – Wilful Misconduct

And the winner is: (insert your own drum roll here):

Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane
That’s all for this year. For those who plan to be in the neighborhood in 2011, the Melbourne festival will resume March 30 and conclude on April 24th.
I hope to see you there!

I hope you liked this article. Please visit Standup Comedy for more interesting tidbits about the world of comedy!

By: Melanie Maloy

About the Author:

Marketing Strategy