Latest news

QUARTER-FINALS!

What an amazing first round that was! Four incredible shows and this is gearing up to be the most exciting MCA so far! The top six acts were voted through each time, apart from in heat 2, where only 5 acts took part, due to Lee Grant having to pull out at the last moment (we really hope to welcome him back next year!). The final place in the Quarter-Finals went to the act with the most votes who didn't get through during the heats (Tom Adams). Now the Quarter-Finals are just around the corner, starting on Feb 11th and we've got four storming shows coming up for you:

FEBRUARY 11th: QUARTER-FINAL ONE WITH JAMES SHERWOOD

Tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/154303

Matt Tiller, Cecilia Delatori, Tom Adams, Jenny Beake, Slap & Giggle, James Rowland

FEBRUARY 18th: QUARTER-FINAL TWO WITH FRANK SANAZI

Tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/154321

Steve Seller, Sandys Ferrett, Andy & the Prostitutes, Darren Walsh, Clare Lomas, Swamp Donkey Soundsystem

FEBRUARY 25th: QUARTER-FINAL THREE WITH HORSE & LOUIS

Tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/154322

Hannah Brackenbury, Rachel Parris, Anne & Alan, Dog Eared Collective, Rob Carter, Gabriella Burnel

MARCH 3rd: QUARTER-FINAL FOUR WITH ROB DEERING

Tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/154323

Fair and Square, Davide Bonney, Bob & Jim, Ant Dewson, Abi makes Music, The Silky Pair

2012 MCA HEATS!

Here are the confirmed details for the heats! All tickets are available from our sponsors WeGotTickets.

JANUARY 7th: HEAT ONE WITH LORETTA MAINE

Bob & Jim

Stephen E Blunder

Sanity Valve

Ukes not dead

Tim Ewins

Steven Jon Seller

Fair & Square

Matt Tiller

Cecilia Delatori

Ant Dewson

JANUARY 14th: HEAT TWO WITH JAY FOREMAN

Tricity Vogue

Ann & Alan

Kieran Conneelly

Slap & Giggle

James Rowland

Lucy Rebecca Cox

Sandys Ferrett

Gabriella Burnel

Jo Stephenson

Lee Grant

JANUARY 21st: HEAT THREE WITH CARLY SMALLMAN

Hannah Brackenbury

Rachel Parris

Electro Future Beard Club

The Silky Pair

Ben Champion

Alex Berry-Hart

Darren Walsh

Abi Makes Music

Barnaby Griffin

The Maydays

Dog Eared Collective

JANUARY 28th: HEAT FOUR WITH MAX AND IVAN

Davide Bonney

Rob Carter

Tommy Mckay

Tom Adams

Mugging Chickens

Vicky Arlidge

Clare Lomas

Swamp Donkey Soundsystem

Andy and the Prostitutes

Jenny Beake

ACTS TAKING PART IN 2012 MCA!

So here are the results for the acts taking part in the 2012 MCA. This is going to be a vintage year! Thank you so much to all who have entered – we felt that some of the entries were absolutely outstanding videos/works of art but didn't quite fit the genre or the format. If you're not through, then we'd like to you offer you two free tickets to a heat of your choice (see below for details).

Here are the forty acts that will take part in the heats at the Wilmington Arms, in the order of who entered:

Mugging Chickens

Alex Berry-Hart

Uke's not dead

Big Stu

Bob & Jim

Lee Grant

The Dog Eared Collective

Jenny Beake

Barnaby Slater

Hannah Brackenbury

James Rowland

Gabriella Burnel

Jo Stephenson

Tricity Vogue

Lucy Rebecca Cox

Matt Tiller

Steven John Seller

Tommy Mckay

Vicky Arlidge

Electro Future Beard Club

Sandys Ferret

The Silky Pair

Ant Dewson

Ann & Alan

David Bonney

Andy & The Prostitutes

Kieran Conneely

Slap & Giggle

Fair & Square

Tom Adams

Abi Makes Music

Steve E Blunder

The Maydays

Rachel Parris

Sanity Valve

Cecilia Delatori

Ben Champion

Barnaby Griffin

Tim Ewins

Clare Lomas

Heats

The first round heats will take place at the Wilmington Arms, Clerkenwell, London on Jan 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th from 1.30 till 4pm. Acts that are through to the heats will be contacted by mill@musicalcomedy.co.uk in order to book you in for your slot at one of the four heats. Each act will have eight minutes to perform. To read all of the competition guidelines, click here . Judges for the MCA 2012 are Mark Boosey of British Comedy Guide, Tim Clark of Such Small Portions, Lynne Parker of Funny Women, Jon Grant and Paul Weedon of Red 24 Management, Kenny Cavey of Com Comedy and Rupert Majendie of BBC Comedy. These judges will be rotating throughout the competition but there will be a minimum of two at each heat. The judges have five points per vote and the audience one point per vote (if acts don't have a huge fanbase, they still have every chance of progressing if they impress the judges). From each first round heat, six acts progress. Tickets will be sold via WeGotTickets.com and cost £7. If you didn't get through but would like to come to a heat, then send an email to ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk . The headliners for the heats and the subsequent rounds are as follows:

First round

Jan 7th: 10 acts plus Loretta Maine

Jan 14th: 10 acts plus Jay Foreman

Jan 21st: 10 acts plus Carly Smallman

Jan 28th: 10 acts plus Max & Ivan

QF's:

Feb 11th: 6 acts plus James Sherwood

Feb 18th: 6 acts plus Frank Sinazi

Feb 25th: 6 acts plus Horse & Louis

Mar 3rd: 6 acts plus Rob Deering

SF's

Mar 17th: 6 acts plus Jollyboat

Mar 24th: 6 acts plus Amateur Transplants

Final (Bloomsbury Theatre):

April 7th: 5 acts plus headliners to be announced later on.

Tickets are available for the Final from Bloomsbury website

Have a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!

See you at the MCAs!

RESULTS ANNOUNCED ON FRIDAY EVENING

Due to time constraints for the judges and to make sure each entry is properly looked at, we're pushing back the announcement of the results to this Friday late evening. Watch this space!

RESULTS COMING SOON!

As we approach the deadline at the end of Sunday 11th December, we just want to say thank you so much to all who've entered! We've had some really amazing entries so far and we're very excited about this year's competition with so many new faces and lots of really talented acts! We will need a few days to look over all the entries but will be announcing the top 40 from the entries on the website, live audition and Facebook group 'Musical Comedy Awards' by Thursday 15th this coming week. We'll publicise the results here and also on Facebook and Twitter. Yeeaah!

ENTER THE 2012 MCA!

Hey all! After a brilliant run of ten shows at Edinburgh, the first ever sell out Final of the German Musical Comedy Awards and our first ever Uni show at Reading, we're now opening the doors for the fourth and finest Musical Comedy Awards! You just need to upload a video of your musical comedy material by midnight on December 11th to the group Musical Comedy Awards 2012. To read all of the competition rules (pretty much unchanged since last year), click here.

After two wonderful years of hosting the Final in the Charing Cross Theatre we have moved to a bigger and better venue and this year we'll be live in the spectacular Bloomsbury Theatre, a 535 seater in central London. It has a real heritage of classic comedy and is a stunning theatre. We are delighted to again welcome back our sponsors WeGotTickets, who will be our online ticket vendor for all of the heats in the wonderful Wilmington Arms and will also be sponsoring the Best Newcomer category with a £200 cash prize. There will again be a £500 cash prize for the winner of the Olympian 2012 MCA. We are thrilled to have the awesome Horse & Louis back as hosts for the majority of the heats and there will also be a few guest comperes slotting in for when those chaps are off on other escapades. We very much looking forward to seeing the entries and will be announcing details on the headliners soon!

LINE UPS FOR MCA EDINBURGH SHOWCASES

Friday 5th - MITCH BENN, Jollyboat, Horse & Louis, Rachel Parris, Moonfish Rhumba, Mugging Chickens (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Saturday 6th - DAVID O' DOHERTY, Three Englishmen, Jay Foreman, Mae Martin, Ray Guns Look Real Enough, Tricity Vogue (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Sunday 7th - JAMES SHERWOOD, Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer, Sharron Matthews, Max and Ivan, Pistol & Jack, Bob Slayer (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Monday 8th - AMATEUR TRANSPLANTS, Kev Orkian, Bob & Jim, Can You Dig It?, Horse & Louis, Ruth E Cockburn (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Tuesday 9th - ISY SUTTIE, Carly Smallman, Helen Arney, Dan Woods, Dave Eastgate, The Sensational Alex Salmond Band (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Wednesday 10th - SARAH LOUISE YOUNG, Frank Sanazi, Jollyboat, Horse & Louis, Mae Martin, The Balconettes (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Thursday 11th - NICK HELM, Kev Orkian, Henry the Groover, Paul Sweeney, Jo Stephenson, Darren Walsh (hosted By Horse & Louis)

Friday 12th - MITCH BENN, Jollyboat, Jay Foreman, Sharron Matthews, Matt Tiller, Strong & Wrong (hosted by Mae Martin)

Saturday 13th - DAVID O' DOHERTY, Desmond O' Connor, Three Englishmen, Rachel Parris, Philfy Phil, Sophie Walsh-Harrington (hosted by Mae Martin)

Sunday 14th - SAMMY J, The Real Macguffins, Ray Guns Look Real Enough, Horse & Louis, The Dog Eared Collective, Ashley Frieze, Sanity Valve (hosted by Horse & Louis)

Line ups are subject to change. All tickets are available here.

Here is the press release for the show - do feel free to forward/publish :-)

MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS SHOWCASE

The Time Out London Critics’ Choice show hits Edinburgh with ten exclusive showcases. This is your best chance to see the UK's finest emerging and established musical comedians up at the Fringe all under one roof and experience the diversity of this fantastic genre. Get ready to turn it up to eleven - the MCA Showcase is in town.

With some of the biggest names in comedy, acts such as Bill Bailey and Tim Minchin, popularising musical comedy, the MCA have grown in stature to become a key date in the comedy calendar and a launch pad for many careers. Over the last three years the MCA have played host to stars of the genre such as Bo Burnham, Frisky & Mannish, Abandoman, Amateur Transplants, Mitch Benn, Tom Basden, Isy Suttie and many more. The format is simple: watch a selection of the very best musical comedy acts on the Fringe, then go see the ones you like!

The MCA is a unique competition that celebrates the emerging musical comedy community in the UK and promotes the venerable art form of comedy songwriting as an independent genre. This year’s showcases will feature headline performances from over 40 artists, including IF. Comedy winner David O’ Doherty, Mitch Benn, Isy Suttie, Sammy J, Phil Nichol, Sarah-Louise Young, Amateur Transplants and James Sherwood plus a number of other top established and emerging musical comedy acts from across the Fringe. Check the Underbelly Blackboards for a brilliant new line up every day! Hosted by 2010 runners up and rising stars of the genre, Horse & Louis.

Sell Out Grand Final 2009/10/11

TIME OUT - "As the Musical Comedy Awards demonstrate, the genre is currently bursting with talent".

COMCOMEDY - “Fast becoming one of the biggest nights in the UK comedy calendar.”

Dates and Times: Aug 5 - 14, 9.50 PM

Tickets: Prices vary - £11/10, £12.50/11

Contact: Ed Chappel

ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk

We are also taking up a show of two of Germany's finest musical comedians - Bodo Wartke and Jens Heinrich Claassen. Here is the press release:

THE GERMANS ARE COMING!

Vee have vays of making you laugh. Let’s make comedy songs, not war.

Meet Bodo Wartke: one of the biggest stars of the German comedy scene. His love song ‘Liebeslied’, can be peformed by Bodo in eighty-eight languages and is a global Youtube phenomenon with over two and a half million hits. If you google ‘Bodo Wartke Liebesliedgenerator’, you can create your own love-song (including languages such as Cantonese, Neomalenesian and Klingon) and see what all the fuss is about. Better to come and see it live though!

Meet Jens Heinrich Claassen: his parents have let him go to the Edinburgh festival and are happy that he will be meeting so many nice people. Maybe he might even meet a girl. If not, he’s still got four I-Phones to play with. The show lasts one hour and after the show Jens will be available for autographs, ice cream and talks on the pros and cons of the iPad 2’s new operating system. Don’t mention Laurence Llewelyn Bowen.

Achtung: real piano in action. And real Germans. In English. Hosted by the organiser of the Musical Comedy Awards and German comedy fan, Ed Chappel. Prepare for the invasion!

Dates and Times: Aug 16 - 17, 10.20 PM

Tickets: £11/10 - available here.

Contact: Ed Chappel

ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk

ADVERTISING OPTIONS

The site is open for promoters and artists who would like to advertise their musical comedy show on the site during the Fringe. We also work closely with a number of other partners, so for a very reasonable rate you can also be featured on the British Comedy Guide website (over half a million unique visitors a month), Such Small Portions , Com Comedy and a number of other comedy and entertainment portals. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss advertising your show!

GODS OF MUSIKCOMEDY FINAL

The Grand Final of the Gods of Musikcomedy competition will take place at the 450 seater ufaFabrik in Berlin on August 28th. The line up will feature Michael Krebs, Nikolic, Florian Schmidt Gahlen , Thomas Nicolai and C. Heiland . There will also be performances from the stars of 'The Germans are Coming', Bodo Wartke and Jens Heinrich Claassen. Tickets are available here.

FRISKY AND MANNISH IN BERLIN

The Germans need an education in pop too! We're very excited to have Frisky and Mannish coming to Berlin from 28th September till the 1st of October, playing four nights at the ufaFabrik. Tickets are available here.

FOR MUSICAL COMEDIANS: A CHANCE TO WIN £25,000

Could you entertain an audience on TV for two minutes, to win yourself £25,000?!

A brand new, prime time show is looking for budding comedians to take part in a unique television experience, where the premise is simple:

A quick turn could win you big money!

There’s no dreaded judging panel to give you a ‘no’ or buzz you off – You just have to impress the studio audience.

Every act that’s a hit with the audience will instantly become a finalist, and one of those acts will be voted the show winner and receive a whopping £25,000. Not bad for two minutes work! There’s no returning later down the line for a high pressured series final – It’s a simple big money win every time.

You don’t have to be the next Michael McIntyre, just be entertaining!

Apply at talent@magnumtv.co.uk now!

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR GODS OF MUSIKCOMEDY FINAL

We had a great Semi-Final at the Kookaburra for the Gods of Musikcomedy competition in Berlin! Through to the final are Nikolic, Michael Krebs, C. Heiland, Thomas Nicolai and Florian Schmidt-Gahlen. The Final takes place on August 28th at the ufaFabrik Berlin with headline slots from Bodo Wartke and Jens Heinrich Claassen, hosted by Mark Scheibe. Tickets are available here.

TEN ACTS COMPETING IN THE GODS OF MUSIKCOMEDY SEMI-FINAL

Through to the Semi-Final of the Gods of Musikcomedy Award are the following artists (not in any particular order):

1. Michael Krebs

2. Maria Vollmer

3. Thomas Nicolai

4. Lorman

5. Andy Sauerwein

6. C. Heiland

7. Nikolic

8. Wolfgang Grieger

9. Manuel Wolff

10. Florian Schmidt Gahlen

Thanks to all the acts who entered the competition, if you didn't get through, we are planning on organising shows outside of the competition, so now we know who you are and will be in touch! If you're in Berlin on June 15th, the Semi-Final is on at the Kookaburra Comedy Club at 20.30 and will be hosted by Evi und das Tier. Hope to see you there!

ALL ENTRIES IN FOR GODS OF MUSIKCOMEDY AWARD

The deadline has now passed to enter the German version of the Musical Comedy Awards! We've had thirty entries uploaded to the site and are currently deciding which ten will go through to the Semi-Final at the Kookaburra Bar in central Berlin on June 15th! It's really exciting to bring the format to Germany and there are some seriously good musical comedy acts taking part. The results will be announced here on Monday late afternoon - viel Glück!

WIN TWO TICKETS TO 'AT LAST! THE 1981 SHOW'

We've got two tickets to give away to the 'At Last! The 1981 Show' - celebrating the 30th anniversary of the alternative comedy explosion that is still shaping the UK comedy scene to this day. The line-up includes Stewart Lee, Andrew Bailey, Arnold Brown, Frank Chickens, John Cooper Clarke, The Greatest Show on Legs, Norman Lovett, Chris Lynam, Kevin McAleer, Pauline Melville, The Oblivion Boys, Nigel Planer as Nicholas Craig and Neil The Folksinger, Alexei Sayle and Arthur Smith. What a show it will be! Here is a link to the site with further information about the show, which will be taking place on May 29th at the Southbank Centre.

To win the two tickets to the show, complete this quote from Neil from the Young Ones with the right answer and send your answer to info@musicalcomedyawards.com:

Neil: I won't say anything because no one ever listens to me anyway. I might as well be a (.......) record.

a. Madonna

b. Leonard Cohen

c. Velvet Underground

GODS OF MUSIKCOMEDY - FANCY TAKING PART IN THE GERMAN MCA?

Dear friends,

As you may have seen on the site, there is also a German version of the MCA in full flow, with the name 'Gods of Musikcomedy' (GoM)! Having given the issue some thought, we've decided that we would also like to invite UK acts who have previously taken part in the MCA to also enter the German version! With my job over here working in a Berlin comedy company, I'm keen to bring German comedy over to the UK (looking forward to bringing two musical comedy stars, Bodo Wartke and Jens Heinrich Claassen) from Germany over to Edinburgh this summer with the show 'The Germans are Coming!') and also vice versa (we've got the amazing Frisky & Mannish coming over to headline four showcases of the Gods of Musikcomedy in late September). So it's very much the plan to get UK musical comedy acts performing over here in Germany too and the GoM competition will be a perfect platform to do just that.

Sitting on the jury of the GoM will be the programme managers of a number of Berlin's best theatres and comedy venues. For example, venues such as the ufaFabrik, the Wühlmäuse, the legendary Bar Jeder Vernunft. So if you are keen to get booked in Berlin and Germany, playing in front of these people could definitely be a shrewd move. If you do want to take part, all you have to do is add your video to the group 'Gods of Musikcomedy' before the 31st of May. The best ten videos will be then selected to perform in the Semi-Final on June 15th at the Kookaburra Bar in central Berlin. From this show, the best five will be selected to take part in the Final on the 28th of August at the ufaFabrik (450 seater theatre). There will then also be shows throughout September (7.-10.9, 14.-17.9 und 28.9-1.10) again at the ufaFabrik to showcase the best acts who took part. Whilst we unfortunately can't cover flights for acts coming over, we can offer hotel accomodation at the Hotel Berlin, Berlin, so you'll have a good place to stay! The winner of the competition will get €500 and plenty of kudos in Germany! It would be great to see a few UK acts taking part too!

One final thing - an idea that I'd like to develop is setting up a UK/Germany musical comedy exchange, whereby a UK act supports a German act on tour and then vice versa. That way both acts can gain publicity and play in front of good crowds without the marketing risk of playing abroad. Your 'exchange partner :-)' brings in the crowd and you perform as a guest. And then vice versa in the other country. If you're interested in being involved in such a network, drop me a line!

Love from Berlin,

Ed

HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter everyone! We've had a good break after the Final and are gearing up for Edinburgh now. The MCA Showcase will be in town for ten days, from August 5-14th at 9.50pm in the White Belly. It's going to be a great chance to showcase the acts that took part in this year's and the last two competitions, plus guest headliners from across the festival. If you're going to be performing at the Festival, drop us an email (ed@musicalcomedyawards.com) with your slot so we know when you'll be playing! Here are also some reviews from the Final:

Such Small Portions review: here.

Com Comedy Review: here.

RESULTS FROM THE FINAL!

Amazing final last night full of fantastic performances! The results were: in third place Tom McDonnell, in second place The Three Englishmen and the winners of the 2011 MCA are Jollyboat! Absolutely brilliant sets also from Mae Martin and Carly Smallman! Thanks to all the acts and everyone who helped make the competition so great!

TICKETS ALMOST GONE

The WeGotTickets allocation is sold out! A few tickets still available from the theatre here. - hurry hurry!

AND WE'VE REACHED THE FINAL!

On Saturday the 19th at the New Players Theatre, the five following acts will be competing in the Grand Final of the 2011 Musical Comedy Awards! Jollyboat, The Three Englishmen, Mae Martin, Carly Smallman and Tom McDonnell! There will be headline slots from musical comedy legend Mitch Benn, DJ Danny and Gareth Richards. The Show will be hosted by last year's runners up, the amazing Horse and Louis! Tickets are disappearing very fast but there are a few still available here.

RESULTS FROM QUARTER-FINAL TWO

Amazing Quarter-Final! Through to the Semis next weekend are Mae Martin, Jollyboat, Tom McDonnell, Steve Aruni (Henry the Groover) and The Three Englishmen. Exciting times!

RESULTS FROM QUARTER-FINAL ONE

Through to the Semi-Finals of the MCA from yesterday's QF are Carly Smallman, Ashley Frieze, Nathaniel Tapley, Anthony Dewson, *The Unexpected Items and *Darren Walsh (*dead heat, both go through). The second QF is on the 26th, so if you're free, come on down!

Tickets are available here.

RESULTS FROM HEAT FOUR

Through from the absolutely packed out heat 4 are Mae Martin, The Three Englishmen, Philbo, Jollyboat, Strong & Wrong and Anthony Dewson! Because there was a tie break, 6 instead of 5 went through this time!

THE FINAL FIRST ROUND HEAT - IT'S A SCORCHER!

We've got an absolutely amazing final first round heat coming up this Saturday at the Wilmington Arms. Here's the line up:

Headline performance from ABANDOMAN (Winners of the 2010 MCA) - “Killer punchlines. Note-perfect, lyrically mind-blowing hip-hop improv. Genius!” – THE STAGE

+ The eleven competing acts:

Mae Martin

Mama Tokus

Lonely Schizophrenic

Jollyboat

Ant Dewson

Phillbo

Ben Glasstone

Strong & Wrong

Three Englishmen

Max and Ivan

Jahonnay Rickwood

Tickets are available here.

RESULTS FROM HEAT THREE

Through to the Quarter-Finals from heat 3 are Adam D Felman, Carly Smallman, Stephen Gray, Darren Walsh and Dan Woods (Pig with the Face of a Boy)! Congratulations! The final first round heat is next Saturday with a headline performance from the winners of the 2010 MCA, ABANDOMAN: tickets available here.

THE WISDOM AND BEAUTY OF THE MCA CROWD

Alongside winning lottery tickets, having group sex with no strings attached and never stepping in dog poop, Musical Comedy Awards fans often eat award-winning Pieminster pies at the Wilmington Arms. FACT. But whilst there are many pies out there, there can only be one MCA winner!

This Saturday is heat number three! So far we've had two amazing heats with some big shocks - brilliant acts like Rob Carter (Finalist last year) and a host of other top musical comedy groups knocked out. Very excited to see what will happen this Saturday!

Alongside the expert jury (Editor of the British Comedy Guide, Producer of Funny Women, executives from Red24 Management and more), five of the eleven musical comedy acts performing at the third heat this Saturday will be voted through to the Quarter-Finals by you the audience.

This Saturday will see the following acts performing their best musical comedy material for you:

Headlined by ROBERT WHITE - “Like listening to an old episode of the Goon Show...a babbling cascade of odd humour' - CHORTLE.”

And featuring the eleven entrants:

Ongalod

Bay City Molars

Adam D Felman

Barnaby Griffin

Carly Smallman

Pig with the Face of a Boy

Darren Walsh

Jugstyle

Mike Stephenson

Jo Public

Stevie Gray

Hosted by the amazing HORSE & LOUIS (MCA 2010 Runners Up) - 'See them before they're big, otherwise you'll regret it.' - BRITISH COMEDY GUIDE

Tickets available here.

RESULTS FROM HEAT TWO

Another great show! Through from heat two to the Quarter-Finals of the 2011 Musical Comedy Awards are Paul Sweeney , Pistol & Jack, Dan Lees , Steve Aruni and The Unexpected Items. Here are tickets for next week's heat, headlined by the brilliant Robert White: available here.

RESULTS FROM HEAT ONE

AMAZING first show for the 2011 MCA! Thanks to all who took part and made it such a top show! Absolutely rammed at the Wilmo for the first of the first round heats! Through from heat one are Ray Guns Look Real Enough, Tom McDonnell, Ashley Frieze, Nathaniel Tapley and Jo Stephenson! Grab tickets while you can for the the one next weekend, headlined by last year's Runners Up, Horse and Louis: here.

FIRST SHOW OF THE MCA 2011

Can't wait to see you at the first show of the 2011 MCA this Saturday afternoon, headlined by the awesome Loretta Maine! If you haven't got tickets yet, make sure you book in advance asap at www.wegottickets.com.

Take a look at what's in store:

1.30 Show begins!

First half

1.30-35: Horse and Louis welcome!

1.35 - 1.43: Ashley Frieze

1.45 - 1.53: Nathaniel Tapley

1.55 - 2.03: Jo Stephenson

2.05 - 2.13: The Bobby Mcgees

2.15 - 2.23: Tom McDonnell

2.25 - 2.45: Break

Second half

2.45 - 2.50: Horse and Louis Welcome

2.50 - 2.58: Richard Fox

3 - 3.08: Rob Carter

3.10 - 3.18: Ginger Frazer

3.20 - 3.28: Ray Guns Look Real Enough

3.30 - 3.40 Collecting vote slips

3.40 - 3.55: Loretta Maine

Show ends

Best way to get to the Wilmington Arms is by getting the number 38 bus in the direction of Clapton Pond, e.g. from Victoria, PIcadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road and then getting off at Rosebery Avenue (Wilmington Arms is number 69, right opposite Exmouth Market).

See you there!

RESULTS RELEASED

Our panel of judges have now cast their votes from all the entrants for the coming MCA! We had initially thought about leaving the final position to an online vote, but decided that sparking an online voting war wouldn't be a fair way to go about it. So here are the 40 acts that have been chosen to take part in the heats, based on our judges votes from both the video submissions and the live audition. In no particular order:

Pig with the Face of a Boy (live audition)

Mama Tokus

The Three Englishmen - live audition

Bob and Jim

Max and Ivan

Jollyboat (aka Tom and Ed)

Mo Oakley (aka Strong + Wrong)

Tom McDonnell - live audition

Ant Dewson

Carly Smallman

The Unexpected Items

EastEndCabaret

Jugstyle

Ongalod

Daisy De Agostini

Rayguns Look Real Enough

Dame Hecate

Paul J Sweeney

Dan Lees

Barnaby Griffin

The Bobby McGees

Ben Glasstone

Nathaniel Tapley

Mae Martin

Rob Carter

Helen Arney

Jo Stephenson

Mister Meredith

Pistol & Jack

Steve Aruni & Henry the Groover

Lonely Schizophrenic

Mike Stephenson

Sanity Valve

Lee Grant

Ginger Frazer

Richard Fox

Ashley Frieze

Jo Public

Stevie Gray

Jahonnay Rickwood

Thank you so much to all who entered! If you didn't get through, we'd like to offer you a pair of tickets to one of the heats of your choice as a thank you for taking part. Drop me an email at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk and we can sort that out. If you're through, I will be contacting you very soon to allocate you a slot for the heats.

TICKETS ON SALE FOR HEATS

Tickets for the heats of the MCA 2011 are now available through our sponsor WeGotTickets. Total sell out last year so book in advance!

First round:

Jan 8th: 10 acts + LORETTA MAINE (aka Pippa Evans, nominee for the IF.Comedy Best Newcomer 2008): “An ungodly blend of Courtney Love, Carrie and Kathy Bates. With better songs, though.” BRITISH COMEDY GUIDE

Tickets available here

Jan 15th: 10 acts + SARAH-LOUISE YOUNG (winner of Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe + Three Weeks Editors Awards) - “Outstanding cabaret” - TIME OUT

Tickets available here

Jan 22nd: 10 acts + ROBERT WHITE - “Like listening to an old episode of the Goon Show on fast-forward, as snippets of puns, stories and musical bursts from his primitive keyboard smash into each other in a babbling cascade of odd humour” - CHORTLE

Tickets available here

Jan 29th: 10 acts + ABANDOMAN (Winners of the 2010 MCA) - “Killer punchlines. Note-perfect, lyrically mind-blowing hip-hop improv. Genius!” – THE STAGE

Tickets available here

Quarter Finals:

Feb 12th: 10 acts + ROB DEERING - “Uses music to brilliantly accessorise his swipes at the innate gormlessness of contemporary culture” - GUARDIAN

Tickets available here

Feb 26th: 10 acts + KEN PARSONS - “Deadly witty short poems and crafted original songs in every possible style, funny, moving, thought provoking” - TROUBADOUR

Tickets available here

Semi-Final:

March 5th: 10 acts + JAMES SHERWOOD - "If you ever wondered what would happen if Bill Bailey and Marcus Brigstocke had a child..." CHORTLE

Tickets available here

THE JUDGES ARE PERUSING...

We should now the results by the weekend at the very latest and they'll be announced here! The online voting for the final place will be a tiny bit delayed too, but we'll let you know asap once that is up and running. Exciting times!

RESULTS COMING SOON!

That's all the entries in! Our team of judges are now considering the 62 entries, plus the six acts that made it along to the snowy live audition. As soon as we know the results we'll post them up here!

UNTIL DECEMBER 12TH TO ENTER MCA 2011

One week to enter the Awards! Please ensure that once you've uploaded a video to the site, you also join the group 'Awards' and add your video to the group! There are some BRILLIANT new acts entering this year, we can't wait for the competition!

LIVE AUDITION FOR MCA 2011

If you've been having issues with uploading videos see the entry below for details on how to get your video uploaded on the site. If you still can't handle the world of videos, we'll be holding a live audition for the MCA 2011 from 8 till 10.30pm on Wednesday December 1st at the Blue Posts, 28 Rupert Street, Soho, London. Be careful as there are two Blue Posts in Soho! If you want to take part and perform a slot (maximim of 2 of your original songs, no longer than 6 minutes), please contact Tamara Cowan at tamara@musicalcomedy.co.uk ASAP and we will book you in.

SOLVING VIDEO ISSUES

Aaah, the world of videos! Some speeded up, some too slow, some not working at all! If you go onto the following site for converting your files to FLV and make sure that by 'Optional Settings', you change the frame rate per second to 30, the video should fingers crossed work when you reload it up to our site!

ONE MONTH TO ENTER PLUS SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Just one month to enter the 2011 MCA (until Dec 12th)! If you haven't entered yet ge ye skates on! Here is an excerpt from a press release today about a special new partnership with Red 24 Management.

Musical Comedy Awards and Red 24 Management strike the right chord

Red 24 Management have partnered with Avin a Larf in a new deal to bring the hugely successful format of the Musical Comedy Awards (MCA), the annual competition to discover, support and promote the best emerging talent in the UK’s growing musical comedy community, to a wider audience across the country.

Now in its third year, the MCA have grown in stature to become a key date in the comedy calendar and a launch pad for many careers. Through the new partnership, Red 24 will be exclusive agents for the MCA outside of the annual competition, which takes place each year between January and March.

After the great success of the MCA Showcases at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, which featured a diverse compilation of the stars of the competition plus special guest performances from superstar acts such as Bo Burnham, both parties are keen to build on the success of the format and help bring musical comedy joy to the whole of the UK.

Said Ed Chappel, founder of Avin a Larf, “With both the Best Newcomers of 2009 and 2010 MCA, Jay Foreman and Sooz Kempner signed to Red 24 Management, we know that in Red 24 we have found a partner with the passion and vision to promote the genre and help take the MCA to the next level.”

Said Jon Grant of Red 24, “Red 24 Management are thrilled to be working with the Musical Comedy Awards to promote such an exciting competition. In the two years it has been running the Awards have unearthed some truly outstanding comedians as well as giving a platform to a wonderful genre of live comedy which is more popular now than it has ever been. We know that the Awards will go from strength to strength and we have some very innovative ideas to ensure this happens and that the Musical Comedy Awards become a major fixture in the UK comedy calendar.”

TOP REVIEW

Read this brilliant review of the Launch on the front page of Spoonfed here.

LAUNCH REPORT

We've got some great coverage on the Launch of the Awards in the UK's number one site for comedy (twice as many hits per month as it's nearest competitor), the British Comedy Guide. You can read the article here! We've already got some great entries - looking forward to seeing more!

NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH WEGOTTICKETS FOR THE MCA 2011

Exciting news - we’re partnering with WeGotTickets for this year's coming competition! Here is a short excerpt from our joint press release:

Third Musical Comedy Awards Hit The Right Note With WeGotTickets

WeGotTickets have partnered with Avin a Larf to sponsor this year's Best Newcomer category at the third Musical Comedy Awards (MCA), the annual competition to discover, support and promote the best emerging talent in the UK's growing musical comedy community.

With some of the biggest names in comedy, acts such as Bill Bailey and Tim Minchin, popularising musical comedy, the Musical Comedy Awards have grown in stature to become a key date in the comedy calendar and a launch pad for many careers.

The exclusive ticket agency for all of last year's sold out heats, WeGotTickets will again be the sole ticket vendor for all seven heats of the 2011 competition, which take place from January through to March 2011 at the Wilmington Arms, Clerkenwell.

NEW IMPROVED VOTING SYSTEM

This year we have tweaked the voting system to make it fairer - rather than being purely decided upon audience vote, industry judges will be present at each of the live heats too. A judge’s vote will count for ten points, so if an act performs a fantastic set but couldn’t drum up support for the day or is just starting out with a small fanbase, there is still a very good chance to progress if you impress the judges. On the judging panel for the heats we will on a rotating basis have Mark Boosey of the British Comedy Guide, Lynne Parker of Funny Women, Hils Jago of Amused Moose, Tim Clark of Get Comedy and Jon Grant and Paul Weedon from Red 24 Management. There will be a minimum of two industry judges at each of the seven heats. The judges will over the course of the heats choose the Best Newcomer, who will be invited to perform at the Final on March 19th. At the final we will also have musical comedy legend Mitch Benn judging too.

To enter you just need to upload a video of your own original musical comedy material to the website and add the video to the section titled ‘Awards’. After December 12th, the best 40 acts are then selected by the industry judges mentioned in the above paragraph. The selected acts enter a series of live knockout heats at the Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell and the audience and judges vote for their favourite five artists from each heat to progress to the next stage until the final five reach the Grand Final at the New Players Theatre in Embankment.

PRIZE MONEY

The winner of the MCA receives a cash prize of £500, the WeGotTickets Best Newcomer receives £200 and all acts that take part in the competition may be invited to take part in Edinburgh showcases of the MCA, a tour of UK universities next Autumn and potentially shows at the legendary Kookaburra Club in Berlin, where MCA founder Ed Chappel is based.

LAUNCH PARTY

Now approaching its third year, the MCA has rapidly become one of the highlights of the comedy calendar year and the best opportunity to witness the stars of today and tomorrow in the musical comedy world. With the resurgence of the genre through superstar acts such as Flight of the Conchords, Bill Bailey, David O’Doherty and Tim Minchin, musical comedy is very much back in the limelight. The MCA is a celebration of the UK’s finest emerging and established comedians, providing audiences with the chance to sample the incredible diversity and talent that this genre of comedy has to offer.

Come and celebrate the beginning of another incredible celebration of musical comedy as we gear up for the 2011 MCA!

Hosted by the 2010 MCA Runners Up, Horse and Louis and featuring 2010 finalists Jay Foreman and Rob Carter, 2010 Best Newcomer Sooz Kempner plus 2011 entrant, Richard Fox, a special guest performance from DJ Danny and headlined by Sarah-Louise Young, winner of both the Three Weeks Editors’ Award and Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe.

Book cheap tickets in advance for £4 here or £6 on the door!

DATE FOR THE FINAL CONFIRMED

The final of the 2011 MCA will be held at the New Players Theatre on Saturday March 19th at 8pm. The show will again be sponsored by Tuborg, with a complimentary Tuborg for each guest. If you buy two tickets and queue up again with a fake beard you'll get two Tuborgs. Bargain!

ENTRIES NOW OPEN FOR THE 2011 MCA!

We are very excited to now be welcoming entries for the third Musical Comedy Awards! If you're new to all this, check out this info pack to find out more about the MCA!

If you would like to enter the competition this year, all you have to do is upload a video of your own original musical comedy material to the group 'Awards' before midnight on Sunday 12th of December. In order to enter your video, you need to become a member of the group 'Awards', then add a topic and attach your video. Please also read the competition's terms and conditions here before entering.

If you already have a video on the site that has not been entered or performed during last year's competition, you may also submit this to the Awards group and enter it. The video can be a sample of your best work, a show reel, something you put together in your bedroom, filmed whilst floating around in space with your Uncle Derek - no problem, as long as it is your own work. Entering this video doesn't mean that you have to perform this at the heats if you get through! Whilst there is no prize for the most views/comments due to how easily this can be unfairly abused, we do highly recommend getting your friends and fans to check out, rate and comment on your video.

The launch party for this year's MCA will be on Tuesday October 19th at the Wilmington Arms from 8pm and will feature some of the best acts from last year's competition. Details to follow soon!

We have got a similar set up to last year in terms of the entry procedure, with video entries uploaded to the site before December 12th and the best 40 will then selected by a panel of industry judges (see terms and conditions on above link for list of judges and the dates for the heats) to compete in live heats from January through to March at the Wilmington Arms. The shows will be compered by the Runners-Up in last year's MCA, the awesome Horse and Louis!

New to this year, the audience vote will now be accompanied by the vote of an industry judge, whose vote will carry ten points, so artists who have not got such a large fanbase/support from their friends on the day will still have a good chance of progressing to the next stage if they impress the judges.

The final will again be at the New Players Theatre (date tbc) with the winner receiving a £500 cash prize. After the competition there will again be Edinburgh shows - hopefully more in 2011 so that we can showcase more of the amazing acts that take part. Excitingly, we have also set up a partnership with the entertainment agency Red 24, who are keen to take the MCA Showcase on a tour of universities in Autumn 2011, so all those who take part in this year’s competition could also be invited to perform at Uni shows across the UK later next year. There are also plans underfoot for a tour of the best UK MCA acts from 2009/2010 and this coming competition in Germany. Regardless of whether you win - entering the MCA will potentially lead to many more shows, plus the chance to perform in front of a constantly packed out, dedicated audience of musical comedy fans and network with other top acts and industry people. Get involved!

OPPORTUNITY FOR MUSICAL COMEDY ACTS - MESSAGE FROM SARAH-LOUISE YOUNG

Theatre Delicatessen are working with London based theatre companies to create THEATRE SOUK: a building full of rooms and in each room a different theatre experience. Punters pay one entrance fee and then place money in a hat in each room depending on what they choose to see.

They are looking for acts for the cabaret bar.

It could be for one night or several, it could be extracts of a show or an hour of material. Your audience may be transient or you may keep them all night long. I will be doing a couple of nights and am looking for other groups or individuals to join me. A great opportunity to try new material or showcase old and take part in this curiosity shop run by one of London's leading lights in pop-up theatre.

THE DETAILS:

Dates: Tuesday 14th September - Saturday 16th October (Press night Tues 21st Sept). Tues-Sat for 5 weeks.

Times: Doors open 7-11pm, with shows running between 7.30 - 10.30pm

The venue is on Picton Place, 2 mins from Bond Street tube. Check out www.theatredelicatessen.co.uk

This will work very much like the Free Fringe - so after each performance you go around with a hat and people donate what they wish to. Theatre Delicatessen are looking for everything from the weird and wonderful to soothing music.

There's a PA system with two microphones but we can accommodate other equipment if people want to bring in there own. There is a small raised stage area but you can use the seating area too. The ceiling is high enough for juggling. Please let us know at once if you are intending to use fire or smoke or anything which might pose a health and safely concern.

I will not be there every night so it is up to the acts to look after the schedule. I will e-mail you in advance of the night so you know who you are working with. Get in is from 6.30pm (doors 7pm). This can be earlier on request.

For more information email Sarah asap at sarah_louise_young@hotmail.com.

TWO INCREDIBLE EDINBURGH SHOWS

What an awesome couple of shows we had! Thanks so much to all of you who came along to see the showcases of the Musical Comedy Awards 2010! We were particularly excited to have Bo Burnham, the 19 year old American Wunderkind of musical comedy (over 60 million Youtube hits and a very rare 5* Guardian review) as our special guest to open the show on Saturday. It will be a great surprise if he doesn't walk away with one of the Edinburgh Awards this year. We were so delighted to have such full houses for both shows and can't wait for the 2011 Musical Comedy Awards! If you are signed up to our mailing list, you should soon be receiving information about entering the Awards for next year. We eagerly await entries from all of the fantastic new acts we met up at Edinburgh, other acts that we have stumbled across over the last year and those who have uploaded videos to the website!

TOP MUSICAL COMEDY TIPS FOR EDINBURGH 2010

As the nation’s musical comedy talent prepare to switch to Fanta for an entire month/receive sponsorship from a beer brand to become a fully functioning human brewery whilst preparing for the big break/to become totally broke and remortgage their kidneys...

It can only mean one thing. IT'S EDINBURGH!

With last year’s Fringe seeing neo-cabaret duo Frisky & Mannish (2009 finalists of the Musical Comedy Awards) crowned the undisputed hit of the Fringe with 8 5* reviews and a avalanche of word-of-mouth recommendations, it looks like this is going to be another year where musical comedy acts take centre stage. We've selected a list of unmissable shows (including ours too!), featuring artists who were involved in this year's Awards and also from the wider musical community.

MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS 2010 SHOWCASE

Two exclusive showcases of this year’s Awards are taking place at 9pm on August 14th and 15th at the E4 Cow Barn. With a taster of each of the artist's full length show, they are a perfect opportunity to sample the best musical comedy acts at the Fringe under one roof. The first show will be hosted by MCA organiser Ed Chappel and the second by the brilliant Tom McDonnell. Tickets going fast!

Book here.

*ABANDOMAN

Having won this year’s Musical Comedy Awards and Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, Abandoman are tipped by many to storm Edinburgh this year. The experience of watching a unique hip-hop comedy masterpiece improvised before your eyes is truly phenomenal. If you haven’t seen them yet, book while you can!

Book here.

*LORETTA MAINE

The brain child of Pippa Evans (Nominee for the 2008 IF.Comedy Best Newcomer), Loretta Maine is reminiscent of an early Courtney Love but with more issues. Recently moved from the US to the UK, Loretta and her band ‘Dog Vagina’ perform from her new EP ‘I’m not drunk I just need to talk to you’. Highly recommended.

Book here.

*TRICITY VOGUE

One of the leading lights of the London cabaret scene and a master of the ukelele, Tricity brings her hilarious kitsch portrait ‘The Blue Lady Sings’ to Edinburgh. Her critically acclaimed take on the blues is a dazzling, witty and strangely haunting cabaret spectacle. Also on the 9th, 16th and 23rd Tricity will be hosting the ‘Ukelele Cabaret’, a unique chance to see some of the best ukelele cabaret acts of this year’s Fringe under one roof. Go see!

Info on ‘The Blue Lady Sings - Free’ here.

Info on Tricity Vogue’s Ukelele Cabaret - Free here.

*HORSE AND LOUIS

One of the surprise packages of this year’s Musical Comedy Awards, Horse and Louis’s surreal blend of comedy songs, character comedy and sketches saw them deservedly come away with second place in this year’s competition. The pair are certainly destined for bigger things - catch them while you can!

Info on ‘Horse and Louis: Special Offer - Free’ here.

*JOLLYBOAT

Semi-finalists for this year’s Awards, Jollyboat (formerly known as The Amazing Tom and Ed Brothers) have an exceptional repertoire of songs, most notably their incredible medley of pirate-based parodies. They still haven’t found what the hook is for. Come and discover the true meaning of brotherly love!

Information about Jollyboat: here.

MUSICAL COMEDY HIT-LIST

Other acts/shows that should be on your musical comedy radar (type in their show name at Edfringe.com) for the festival include:

*Jay Foreman - Pretend that you're happy

*Sarah-Louise Young - Cabaret Whore Encore

*James Sherwood - One Man and his Piano

Bo Burnham - Words, Words, Words

David O’Doherty - Somewhere over the David O' Doherty

*Helen Arney - Helen Arney's Songs for Modern Loving

*Max and Ivan - Max and Ivan

Strong & Wrong - Strong & Wrong

*Tom McDonnell - Tom McDonnell's Musical Ministry of Comedy

*Ginger and Black - The Chill Factory

Hans Teeuwen - Smooth and Painful

Gareth Richards - Stand Up Between Songs

Kit & the Widow - Oiling Up

Tom Binns (Ivan Brackenbury) - Hospital Radio Remix

Frisky and Mannish - The College Years

*Tom Adams - Can't Come

Axis of Awesome - Songs in the Key of Awesome

Dead Cat Bounce - Too Fast for Love

Steve Pretty - The Origin of the Pieces

Showstopper - The Improvised Musical

Doc Brown - Unfamous

Amateur Transplants - In Theatre

Carly Smallman - You're Not the One (not strictly musical comedy but we love Carly!)

Rob Deering - Beat This

John Hegley - Animal Alphaboat

Me Me Me (featuring Des O'Connor, Sarah-Louise Young and Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer)

Vive Le Cabaret - Vive Le Cabaret

Matt Tiller - Reasons Not to Kill

Fascinating Aida - Pearls Before Wine

Rainer Hersch - Rainer Hersch's Victor Borge

Ant Dewson - I bought Richard Hammond's Underpants on Ebay

Jollie - Roger

Pig with a Face of a Boy - Dan Woods' Oral History

Luke Meredith - Hairy Pretty Things

Ray Guns Look Real Enough - Set to Stun

*performing at one of the MCA Showcases at the E4 Cow Barn

Well you might not get to see all of them, but you can try! Apologies if anyone was left out here - let me know and I'll add you!

ADVERTISING

The site is now open for promoters and artists who would like to advertise their musical comedy show on the site during the Fringe. We already have a few shows up there (as you can see on the right hand side each page) and still have a bit of further space available if need be. Contact Ed if you'd like to discuss advertising your show. Also if you'd like your show listed on the Gigs page, please get in touch.

REVIEWS

If you are proud of a review you've received and would like it to be mentioned in the News Page, do feel free to send it us and we'll have a weekly round up of musical comedy reviews posted on our site. You can also post them to us via the Twitter account - @musicalcomedyuk or post them on the new Facebook fan page 'Musical Comedy Awards'.

Phew! That's a lot of acts! If you're up at the festival, it would be great to see you there - hopefully also at the MCA showcases :-)

TIMES ARTICLE ON ABANDOMAN

Read this brilliant article from the Times on Abandoman, the winners of both the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards and the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year. It looks pretty likely that they are going to storm Edinburgh as well!

EDINBURGH MCA SHOWCASES - LIVE AT THE E4 COW BARN

The line-up has now been released for the Edinburgh showcases of the Musical Comedy Awards. To see which brilliant acts are performing and purchase tickets, click on the following link to the Underbelly ticket page.

EDINBURGH PREVIEW - FEATURED ON FRONT PAGE OF TIME OUT COMEDY!

The last London extravaganza before the Musical Comedy Awards 2010 Showcase hits the Edinburgh Fringe is featured on the front page of Time Out Comedy.

There are still some £10 tickets available on the door - come and celebrate Abandoman's double-award winning year and watch five of the best emerging musical comedy acts in the UK rock out!

MUSICAL COMEDY WITH A SIDE OF CHIPS

Come to the Blue Posts pub on Thursday June 17th for a fantastic evening of top artists from this year's Awards, plus some of the best chips ever! You'll also get £5 off the ticket price for the amazing showcase on July 3rd, featuring a special headline slot from this year's breakthrough comedy success story: Abandoman. Check out the line-up for June 17th and book tickets here.

LOVELY THEATRE FOR EDINBURGH PREVIEWS

If anyone is looking for a nice place to preview their Edinburgh show, check out the lovely Theatre 503 in Battersea. Here are the details: The charge is £100 plus 30% of box office for an early or late slot, or £140 plus 30% if you take both the early and late slots. The slots currently available are: Sat 10th July 7.30 & 9.15pm, Sun 11th 7.30 & 9.15pm, Mon 12th 9.15pm, Sun 18th 7.30 & 9.15pm, Wed 21st 9.15pm, Fri 23rd 9.15pm, Mon 2nd Aug 9.15pm, Tue 3rd 7.30 & 9.15pm, Wed 4th 7.30 & 9.15pm, Thu 5th 7.30 & 9.15pm. Contact programming@theatre503.com for more information, remember to include a little bit about your show.

TALENTED WRITER OF COMEDY SONGS SEEKS PERFORMERS

Jennifer Eisman writes very funny comedy songs, but is looking for someone to perform them! If you want to hear some of her stuff, contact her via facebook (Jennifer Anne Eisman).

MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS 2010 SHOWCASE - EDINBURGH PREVIEW

Headlined by Abandoman - the breakthrough comedy sensation of 2010. Tickets available here.

New Players Theatre

Tickets £15/12

Saturday July 3rd

Doors 7.30pm, Show: 8 - 10pm

The Time Out Critics’s Choice and Guardian Pick of the Week show returns to the gorgeous New Players Theatre for a preview of the Musical Comedy Awards 2010 showcases coming to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Representing the very best from the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards will be the smash hit double award-winning Abandoman, runners up Horse and Louis, Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Finalist Tom Adams and the internationally acclaimed Ben Glasstone.

Having won both this year’s Musical Comedy Awards and the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, there can be little dispute that Abandoman are the breakthrough comedy sensation of 2010. Their combination of improvised hip-hop, total audience contribution and inspired comedy is pure exhilaration: “Very funny, fresh and endlessly creative… A star-of-the-future (TIME OUT). In this special extended headline set, Rob Broderick and the Abandoman crew will preview new material that is destined to take Edinburgh by storm.

Supporting Abandoman will be this years runners up of the Awards, the fantastic double act Horse and Louis: “original and spookily convincing performances as perturbed and perhaps slightly unhinged school assembly singers” (SPOONFED), alongside Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Finalist Tom Adams: “a charming and smartly groomed young man singing funny, original, whimsical songs” (THE SCOTSMAN) and the eloquent wordsmithery of Ben Glasstone: “Glasstone successfully mixes wildly disparate styles from Klezmer to Renaissance Madrigal, and his lyrics are inspired” (NEW YORK TIMES).

The Musical Comedy Awards Showcase is going to the Udderbelly’s E4 Cowbarn for the weekend of August 14 - 15th: tickets will be available soon but catch it here in London first!

2010 ELECTION SONG CONTEST

We are very excited to be co-organising an election song contest! Send a video of your best election song (comedy or otherwise) to the group.

The best entries will be selected to perform at Darbucka on the evening of May 5th and the winner will receive a cash prize of £100. We are expecting quite a lot of press coverage for the event so get involved!

MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS SHOWCASE, 17TH APRIL

With this year's competition over, we want to give you the chance to see extended sets of the brilliant artists who took part this year! The Wilmington Arms is just about the coolest pub in the world. To get an idea of the amazing atmosphere, watch this clip of the Quarter-Finals here.

Book tickets and check out the top line-up for Saturday 17th April (limited amount of 2 for 1 tickets too!) here.

CALL FOR PERFORMERS FROM SPEECHMOTION

Here's a message from Speechmotion which may be of interest!

Speechmotion runs on the last Tuesday of every month in Shoreditch at the Horse and Groom Bar on Curtain road and houses new talent from performers, (musicians, poets, theatre practitioners, comedians, and filmmakers). If you write your own material, we want to hear from you, if you are dyslexic, we really want to hear from you.

We have opener slots, 5-8 min, Guest slots, 10-15 and headliners slots, 15-20 min. Please email speechmotion@makingtheatrework.com your contact details and a link to your work asap.

REVIEWS OF THE GRAND FINAL

Take a look at these reviews of the Final! Some ouch moments but generally very positive! If you were there and want to send us your review, send it to ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk.

We'll also have video footage of the show uploaded here soon!

Mike Stephenson of Spoonfed

Steve Bennett of Chortle

Anna Lowman's Blog

OH WHAT A NIGHT

The final was the most awesome evening of musical comedy ever! The winners of the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards are the incredible Rob Broderick and Abandoman, who have now scooped two prizes this year, adding the Musical Comedy crown to their Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Award. Runners-Up were the fantastic Horse and Louis and in third place was the brilliant Mr Jay Foreman. This year's Best Newcomer was awarded to Sooz Kempner, who had only played two gigs before this year's Awards but reached the semi-final with her fantastic set. The 'Spirit of the Awards' was awarded to Brigitte Aphrodite, whose sparkling energy, charm and bonkersness sum up what the Awards are all about! More info and reviews to follow soon! Thanks so much to everyone who took part, came to the shows and helped to make it such an incredible series of shows!

FINAL COMPLETELY SOLD OUT

If you were planning to come, I hope you've got tickets already - all sold out now! For those who didn't get tickets, plenty more shows to come so don't worry!

THE ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF MUSICAL COMEDY AND ALL IT'S WONDER

This Friday 26th will be the final of the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards and what a night it promises to be! The show is one of the Guardian's Pick of the Week, which you can view here.

Starting off the night at 7.30 in the New Players Theatre Bar, there will be a special performance from the master of musical comedy on the baby grand white piano, Earl Okin. Then from 8pm there will be performances from the finalists: Horse and Louis, Jay Foreman (last year's Best Newcomer), Abandoman (winners of this year's Hackney Empire New Act of the Year), Amateur Transplants and Rob Carter. There will also be sets from 2007's IF.Comedy Best Newcomer Tom Basden, nominee of the same award the following year Pippa Evans, BBC3's hilariously deadpan duo Ginger and Black and last year's winners of the Awards, Adams and Rea. I look forward to seeing you there - it's the musical comedy event of the year!

CALLING ALL MUSICAL COMEDIANS - SUBMISSIONS INVITED FOR WORLD'S FUNNIEST RELIGION COMPETITION!

Here is a message from Rob Pirouet of Slingshot productions about a great new competition! Great chance for exposure - you can upload the videos to their site and put them up here too if you fancy!

We are running a nationwide comedy competition, which we felt your community of musical comedians would be interested in hearing about. To celebrate the release of British comedy THE INFIDEL (written by David Baddiel and out in UK cinemas on 9th April), Omid Djalili and David Baddiel have launched a national search to find out Which Religion is Funniest?

The competition is looking for entries as varied as single jokes, stand up routines, sketches, songs or even short films based around the subject of religion. The prize? The comedian will get to perform at the Hammersmith Apollo at the premiere of THE INFIDEL! To enter the competition and to vote on other submissions, click here.

Submissions are entered via this Facebook Application that will then broadcast the entries and put them up for voting.

The ten most popular clips will be submitted to the judging panel, which includes Omid Djalili and David Baddiel. The top ten will be invited to the premiere and the winner will get to perform their joke alongside Baddiel and Djalili to an audience of 3,500 (including celebrities, VIPs, news cameras and comedy agents) at THE INFIDEL premiere at the Hammersmith Apollo on the 8th of April 2010. You can see the film’s trailer here.

And here is the link to the film’s premiere at the Hammersmith Apollo.

SEMI-FINAL RESULTS!

That has to go down as the most exciting gig I've ever been involved in - ten of the very best emerging musical comedy acts in the UK all under one roof driving everybody crazy! All of the artists who have taken part in the Awards this year are going to be involved in a number of paid shows both here in London and beyond - more details coming soon. Through to the final for the 2010 Awards are the following artists: Horse and Louis, Amateur Transplants, Jay Foreman, Rob Broderick & Abandoman and Rob Carter. I just can't wait for the final - you can book tickets here on the homepage of the website - it's going to be an amazing night!

PLUG FOR THE AWARDS - GINGER AND BLACK ON BBC RADIO 3's THE VERB

Listen to this great set from Ginger and Black (playing at the final on March 26th) on The Verb, available until Friday 5th of March! Such an amazing duo - check out their musical poem...wow! The Awards gets plugged on 24 minutes :-) Listen to it while you can here.

QUARTER-FINAL TWO!

What a show, woah woah oh! Through to the Semi-Final from QF2 are Sooz Kempner, Horse and Louis, The Amazing Tom and Ed Brothers, Amateur Transplants and Rob Broderick and Abandoman. Book tickets for the Semi-Final on March 6th here.

RESULTS OF QUARTER-FINAL ONE

Brilliant first Quarter-Final, totally sold out as usual! The votes were very close and so many great great performances...through to the Semi-Finals from Quarter-Final one are Jay Foreman, Tom McDonnell, Kevin Davidson, Brigitte Aphrodite and Rob Carter. Photos will be uploaded soon on my facebook page. See you at the next Quarter-Final on the 27th and happy Valentines weekend!

MENSCH, DAS WAR RICHTIG UEBER COOL!

This Friday we had a truly fantastic show at the New Players Theatre, with Dota Kehr (Die Kleingeldprinzessin) and Bodo Wartke (2004 winner of the Kleinkunstpreis, currently on a sell-out tour of Germany and Austria) playing at the inaugural 'Vorsprung durch Musik'. The show was the German Embassy's cultural highlight of the week and in Time Out's weekly newsletter as one of the top three events for Friday night! Was quite a gamble, bringing German artists over to London but it really worked so we'll definitely being having another of those in the future! To see photos of this show and all the other heats of the Awards add me on Facebook (Edward Chappel) or on Twitter see top-right link.

QUARTER-FINALS!

These Quarter-Finals are going to be more than awesome as we approach the final stages, click on the links to see who is performing and to get tickets:

QF 1, Feb 13th, Wilmington Arms, 69 Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4RL, 1.30-4pm

Book tickets for the 13th here

QF 2, Feb 27th, Wilmington Arms, 69 Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4RL, 1.30-4pm

Book tickets for the 27th here

TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THE 2010 MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS GRAND FINAL

Tickets are already selling fast for this year's final at the New Players Theatre on March 26th. Here's a link! www.newplayerstheatre.com

Here's also a short press release about the Awards and the Final:

Now in it's second year, the Musical Comedy Awards is an unique competition that celebrates the emerging musical comedy community in the UK and promotes the venerable art form of comedy songwriting as an independent genre.

Last December the UK’s top forty emerging musical comedians were selected by Time Out Comedy editor Tim Arthur and other judges from Avin a Larf’s dedicated musical comedy website www.musicalcomedy.co.uk to compete in a series of live heats at the Wilmington Arms from January through to March. Alongside the talented entrants, audiences are treated to headline performances from established musical comedians such as Earl Okin, Gavin Osborn, Jo Neary and Isy Suttie.

Now, having survived the public’s vote throughout the heats, the audience’s favourite five acts will come together for the Grand Final at the gorgeous New Players Theatre on March 26th to do battle for the crown of the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards! Judging the five competitors will be Tim Arthur of Time Out, musical genius and sex symbol Earl Okin and last year’s winners of the competition, Sarah Adams and Leisa Rea of Adams and Rea.

Supporting the UK’s hottest emerging musical comedy talent will be some of the nation’s finest established musical comedy acts:

Tom Basden (Winner of the 2007 IF Comedy Best Newcomer): “If you haven't fall in love with this intelligent man's sublime comedy yet then here's your perfect opportunity. Simply magical!” TIME OUT

Pippa Evans (Nominee for the 2008 IF Comedy Best Newcomer) - “The finest female character comic around”. TIME OUT

Ginger and Black (As seen on BBC 3’s Comedy Shuffle) - “Ginger and Black are a polished, circuit-ready act”. CHORTLE

Adams and Rea (Best Act 2009 Musical Comedy Awards) - "Much salacious booty-shaking..musically astute and gleefully non-PC, they deserve a bigger stage" - SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

The show will be hosted by the founder of Avin a Larf, Ed Chappel. Come and celebrate the resurgence of music-based comedy!

FOURTH HEAT RESULTS AND QUARTER-FINALS

What a first round we've had. The fourth and final heat of the first round was again completely sold out and a fantastic show. Photos will soon be available via the such small portions website - I'll post the link here once they are up! Through to the Quarter-Finals are Max and Ivan, Jay Foreman, Sooz Kempner, Strong & Wrong and Kevin Davidson. Eustus had to pull out due to unforeseen circumstances, which meant that 5, not 6 artists were voted through. The remaining place is filled by the artist who had the most votes, despite not getting through their heat. That artist is Barnaby Griffin from heat three, who also progresses to the Quarter-Finals.

We're just finalising which artists will play in which heat, but through to the Quarter-Finals are the following acts : Rob Broderick, Carly Smallman, Tom McDonnell, Brigitte Aphrodite, Rebecca Hamway, Amateur Transplants, Rob Carter, Henry the Groover (Steve Aruni), Vikki Stone, The Amazing Tom and Ed Brothers, Horse and Louis, Antony Elvin, MC Cashback, Barnaby Griffin, Hannah Brackenbury, Kevin Davidson, Max and Ivan, Jay Foreman, Strong & Wrong, Sooz Kempner, Luke Meredith and Matt Tiller. Headlining the Quarter-Final heats will be Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer on Feb 13th and Sarah Adams from Adams and Rea on the 27th. For the Semi-Final we've got Martin White and the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra coming along too! Will post the links up to the tickets and facebook pages as soon as they're ready!

THIRD HEAT TOTAL SELL-OUT AGAIN

Amazing show today with some incredible performances from the artists taking part. The standard was so high and it was very very close with the votes. Once the Awards are over, there will be a monthly showcase of the best musical comedy, so artists that don't progress to the next stages are 100% invited to come and play at future showcases which will be announced after the Awards! Through to the Quarter-Finals from heat three are Hannah Brackenbury, Antony Elvin, MC Cashback, The Amazing Tom and Ed Brothers, Horse & Louis and Vikki Stone. If you would like to book tickets for the final heat, book in advance to guarantee a place:

Get tickets for heat four

HEAT TWO, WOOHOO!

Another rocking show yesterday! Guy from Moonfish Rhumba and Antony Elvin were both ill so had to drop out of this heat and will perform in one of the other heats coming up. From the heat, three artists progress to the next round and they are Amateur Transplants, Sarah-Louise Young and Steve Aruni. Sarah-Louise Young has since had to pull out due to not being able to make either of the Quarter-FInals and is replaced by Rob Carter, who had the next highest amount of votes. In the next two heats, there will be six selected from eleven acts. Amazing performances from the artists who played yesterday, especially Gavin Osborn's set! His songs moved the audience to tears (alongside the bellows of laughter!) Next week we will have a headline slot from Jo Neary and the week after that we've got Isy Suttie!

FIRST HEAT ABSOLUTELY RAMMED

Complete sell-out crowd for the first heat of the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards! Through to the next stage are Tom McDonnell, Rob Broderick, Carly Smallman, Rebecca Hamway and Brigitte Aphrodite. Earl Okin was absolutely amazing too, what a show. These are exciting times, these Awards are literally going to be incredible!

You can view pictures of the first heat on the all new Such Small Portions website, photos taken by Alex Brenner: www.suchsmallportions.co.uk

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year! May your figgy puddings and boughs of holly inspire you to many a brilliant comedy song and 2010 bring you lots of happiness, success and fun! Looking forward to seeing lots of you at the heats for the Awards in January!

VORSPRUNG DURCH MUSIK - THE BEST GERMAN ARTISTS

ZEITGEIST and AVIN A LARF proudly present VORSPRUNG DURCH MUSIK:

FEBRUARY 5TH, NEW PLAYERS THEATRE, 8 -11pm, £22/ concessions £17

Beer supplied by ROTHAUS, Airline Partner AIR BERLIN

The inaugural collaboration of London’s finest German pub ‘Zeitgeist’ and dedicated musical comedy promoters ‘Avin a Larf’ promises to be a very special night indeed - the best entertainment from Germany and authentic German ‘Rothaus’ beer! Performing on the evening at this EXCLUSIVE London Showcase will be two of Berlin’s most exciting artists working in comedy and music at the moment.

BODO WARTKE - Multi-award winning cabarettist, Bodo Wartke is one of Germany’s brightest and most hilarious musical comedians on the circuit. His multi-lingual love song ‘Liebeslied’ has close to one and a half million hits on Youtube. He is currently on a nationwide tour playing to sell-out audiences across Germany and Austria. More info at www.bodowartke.de

DIE KLEINGELDPRINZESSIN - Dota Kehr, aka ‘Die Kleingeldprinzessin’ is a uniquely talented singer song-writer whose gorgeously constructed songs offer a unique blend of jazz, bossanova and folk. Seamlessly weaving humour, poetry and satire into her hauntingly beautiful guitar-led songs, Dota is a reminder of the forgotten Woodstock spirit, where substance wins over style. More info at www.kleingeldprinzessin.de

Hosted by EWEN MCKINTOSH - TV star and UK comedian famous for his role playing ‘Keith’ in ‘The Office’, the massive BBC hit that has spawned imitations both in Germany and the USA.

An UNMISSABLE night for Germans living in London, enthusiasts of the culture and language and those who want to find out more about the hottest German artists of the moment!

Tickets available at www.ticketweb.co.uk

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TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR HEATS

Here is a more up to date list of the heats with links to tickets - as you can see there are some very strong line-ups. Tis going to be a mighty celebration of the genre! There is a direct link to wegottickets.com at the top right hand corner of the website. There is also a funny picture of me drawing all Tim's recommended entries from a box on Facebook (Edward Chappel) if you'd like to see the democratic process in action!

Heat 1: Olly Atkinson, Rob Broderick, Carly Smallman, Rebecca Hamway, Tom Mcdonnell, Brigitte Aphrodite, Sanity Valve, The London Quartet Tricity Vogue + EARL OKIN

Get tickets for heat one

To join the Facebook event page Click here

Heat 2: Daisy De Agostini, Antony Elvin, Moonfish Rhumba, Amateur Transplants, Cecilia Holmes, Kamikazi 64, Steve Aruni, Rob Carter, Sarah-Louise Young + SPECIAL GUEST.

Get tickets for heat two

To join the Facebook event page Click here

Heat 3: Kevin Davidson, Alexandra Clarke, MC Cashback, Horse Louis, Tom & Ed, Hannah Brackenbury, Bay City Molars, Vikki Stone, Rayguns Look Real Enough, Barnaby Griffin + JO NEARY.

Get tickets for heat three

To join the Facebook event page Click here

Heat 4: Ben Glasstone, Helen Arney, Tom Adams, Sooz Kempner, Max and Ivan, Strong & Wrong, Eustus, Jay Foreman, George Prow, Danse Macabre + ISY SUTTIE.

Get tickets for heat four

To join the Facebook event page Click here

TIM ARTHUR'S TOP 40 - ARTISTS FOR THE 2010 MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS

Here is the list for the 40 artists who will compete for the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards crown! There's going to be some serious musical comedy action hitting London next year. I had a very fun evening having my own World Cup draw, writing everyone's name on a piece of paper and then selecting them randomly out of a box and placing them in four different piles! Here is the list in no specific order.

Hannah Brackenbury

Max and Ivan

*Luke Meredith

*Matt Tiller

Antony Elvin

Ben Glasstone

Helen Arney

The Amazing Singing Dentists

Kamikazi 64

Cecilia Holmes

Sooz Kempner

Vikki Stone

Eustus

Barnaby Griffin

Moonfish Rhumba

Daisy De Agostini

MC Cashback

Tom McDonnell

Steve Aruni

The London Quartet

Midgetgems

Dame Hecate

Rob Carter

Olly Atkinson

Danse Macabre

Horse and Louis

George Prow

Tom and Ed

Amateur Transplants

Tricity Vogue

Rob Broderick (Abandoman)

Strong and Wrong

Tom Adams

Sarah-Louise Young

Sanity Valve

Brigitte Aphrodite

Kevin Davidson

Jay Foreman

Carly Smallman

Alexandra Clarke

*joint-winners of the Open-Mic competition on October 22nd have a bye to the Quarter-Finals

I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's entered the Awards. For those who haven't been selected for the heats, after the Awards are finished there is going to be a new monthly musical comedy showcase taking place so there are going to be plenty of opportunities to perform in the future - so please don't hang up your musical comedy hat in a fit of rage!

HEATS

For the first round, half of you will be playing in groups of ten whilst the other half will be in groups of nine. If the date is not suitable, please let me know via email (ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk), but you are also responsible to find someone to swop slots with. You can contact the artists via their profile on the site and once you have agreed on a swop please send me the details.

Jan 9th - Olly Atkinson, Tom Adams, Cecilia Holmes, Carly Smallman, Tom Mcdonnell, Jay Foreman, Steve Aruni, The London Quartet, Tricity Vogue + EARL OKIN

Jan 16th - Vikki Stone, Daisy De Agostini, Antony Elvin, Moonfish Rhumba, Amateur Transplants, Rob Broderick, Kamikazi 64, Max and Ivan, Rob Carter + SPECIAL GUESTS

Jan 23rd - Kevin Davidson, MC Cashback, Alexandra Clarke, Horse and Louis, Tom and Ed, Hannah Brackenbury, Sarah-Louise Young, The Amazing Singing Dentists, Midgetgems, Barnaby Griffin + JO NEARY

Jan 30th - Sooz Kempner, Ben Glasstone, Sanity Valve, Helen Arney, Brigitte Aphrodite, George Prow, Danse Macabre, Strong & Wrong, Eustus, Dame Hecate + ISY SUTTIE

So those are the heats, Saturdays at the Wilmington Arms between 1.30 and 4pm!

TICKETS

Tickets for the heats will be sold at www.wegottickets.com for £7 - once tickets are on sale I'll post the links up here so that you can let your friends know and make sure they can come along to support you at your heat.

FACEBOOK EVENT

For each heat there'll also be a Facebook event - if we're not already friends on Facebook please add me (Edward Chappel) so that I can invite you to the show you're going to be in and make you an admin so that you can invite your friends. If you're not on Facebook don't worry, I'm sure you can find other ways to spread the word!

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The Wilmington Arms has got a good technical set-up and there will be a sound technician at all of the heats, but if you have any unusual requirements/additional instruments please make sure that you bring all the necessary leads and equipment with you.

JUDGING AT SHOWS

Up until the final of the Musical Comedy Awards on March 26th, the audience will decide who goes through to the next stage. Each audience member will have a voting slip and choose their favourite five artists to go through.

So that's about it for now - as you can see, there are some really top artists taking part in the Awards, it's going to be an amazing few months! Hope to see lots of you at the shows and the link to buying tickets should be up on the website soon - make sure you let your friends know!

RECAP ON DATES AND DETAILS FOR HEATS

From the sixty-five entries, forty artists will be selected by Tim Arthur to take part in the first round heats. These will take place on Saturday January 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th between 1.30 and 4pm at the Wilmington Arms, London. Once I have received the list of 40 artists, I will publicise this list and then be in touch to assign artists with a slot. Ten artists will play in each heat, of which five will go through to the next round each time. The live audience will choose their favourite five artists through a voting slip. Tickets will be on sale soon....here are the dates altogether.

FIRST ROUND: Jan 9th - 10 ARTISTS + EARL OKIN

FIRST ROUND: Jan 16th - 10 ARTISTS + SPECIAL GUESTS

FIRST ROUND: Jan 23rd - 10 ARTISTS + JO NEARY

FIRST ROUND: Jan 30th - 10 ARTISTS + ISY SUTTIE

QUARTER FINAL: Feb 13th - 10 ARTISTS + SPECIAL GUESTS

QUARTER FINAL: Feb 27th - 10 ARTISTS + SARAH ADAMS

SEMI-FINAL: March 6th - 10 ARTISTS + SPECIAL GUESTS

FINAL (NEW PLAYERS THEATRE, 8pm): March 26th 5 FINALISTS + PIPPA EVANS, GINGER & BLACK, ADAMS AND REA + SPECIAL GUESTS

AND THE ENTRIES ARE IN!

The deadline to enter the 2010 Awards has now passed - if you submitted a video to the site within seven days before the deadline but forgot to add it to the Awards section, you have today (Sunday 13th December) to do so. Including the artists who took part in the live audition we now have 64 entries, of which 40 will be selected by Tim Arthur from TIME OUT to progress to the live heats. He will let me know within the next week which 40 have been selected and I will then publicise the list in this News section. After that we will allocate you with a slot for one of the heats on January 9th, 16th, 23rd or 30th. At the heats, the audience will have a voting slip where they can choose the five artists they would like to see go through to the next stage. Tickets for the heats will be available soon from wegottickets.com. We have some great entries and these Awards are going to be amazing! Very excited and a big thanks to all of you for being involved!

ONE WEEK TO ENTER THE AWARDS!

The deadline to enter the Awards is drawing closer! Artists have until midnight on December 12th to submit a video and add it to the Awards section. The artists who took part at the live audition at the Blue Posts (for those having technical/video issues were:

Sarah-Louise Young

Carly Smallman

Alexandra Clarke

Sanity Valve

Brigitte Aphrodite

Kevin Davidson

Atomic Penguins

Jay Foreman

Strong and Wrong

Tim Arthur was judging the entries and will consider the artists that performed alongside the online entries after the deadline has passed! Rock on and get your entries in soon! As mentioned before, if you entered last year and would like to submit an existing video, that is also fine. In the heats you will have eight minutes of action on stage, so plenty of time to show off new material.

AWARDS LEADING STORY ON TOP COMEDY WEBSITE

The website www.suchsmallportions.com has written a good article about the Awards and the live audition this Friday. You can read it here "Musical Comedy Open Audition".

ONE LIVE AUDITION IF TECHNOLOGY HAS BROKEN YOUR WILL TO LIVE

Some amazing new entries to the site! Very excited about the coming Awards! Quite a few people have contacted me about having a hard time finding access to a webcam or getting a video together, so we're going to have one live open audition for artists who really want to enter the Awards but have been defeated by the machines! It will take place from 8-9.30 next Friday, 4th of December, upstairs at the Blue Post pub, 28, Rupert St, London, W1D 6DJ. Artists can play a maximum of two songs in their slot and will be considered alongside the other online entries already on the site. If you'd like to audition, send me an email at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk. If you have already entered and fancy coming along to watch and have a chat afterwards, do come on down and grab a drink!

NOW EASIER TO ENTER THE MUSICAL COMEDY AWARDS

If you entered the 2009 Awards with a video that is still on the site, you can also add that video to the 'Awards' section and enter the 2010 Awards. Because if you get selected through to the live heats, you'll have 8 minutes of stage-time, not just one video. Submitting a video is a sign of intent that you want to be considered, but you can also give links to audio content, for example on your myspace page, that contains recordings of your comedy songs which you are proud of. You can also upload a still image with the audio track of a song in the background. The 2010 Awards will be about live performance - so don't worry too much about making a world class video - if you can demonstrate talent and give links to more of your work that is of a high quality, you should be in with a good chance!

MUSICAL COMEDY COVER STORY ON THE GUARDIAN FRONT PAGE

I got a very happy surprise picking up today's Guardian - Brian Logan has written another brilliant article praising musical comedy and it was displayed at the top of the very front page! He mentions the Awards too, here's a link to the article "Musical Comedy finds the right pitch"

Hooray for the Guardian! If you haven't entered yet, there's about 5 weeks left, but the sooner the better!

LAUNCH THE MEGA ROCK OUT! PR MACHINE NOW IN ACTION

Thanks to all who came to the fantastic launch for the 2010 Awards. Some serious love in the room with the genre of musical comedy represented in all its beauty and diversity! Amazing performance from Jay Foreman, the earth moved for both men and women during Earl Okin's incredible set and some amazing sets from all the acts that took part in the Open-Mic competition. Matt Tiller and Luke Meredith were joint winners of the competition and both have a bye to the second round for the Awards! The PR Machine for the Awards is now on the move, get involved asap if you want to enter the Awards this year - the deadline is Dec 12th but it's best to get in there as soon as you can and get maximum coverage.

HERE WE GO!

Yes, the Awards have already begun and the entries have started to trickle in, but the Launch Party for the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards is going to the big celebration for all the madness on the way! Things will be kicking off on the 22nd at the Wilmington Arms around 7.45ish with a set from the hilarious Brass Band "Blow-Up! The Credit Crunch Musical" "Blow-Up! The Credit Crunch Musical" - there will also be performances from musical comedy legend and judge for the Awards, "Earl Okin", last year's Best Newcomer, "Jay Foreman" and some very special guests with a special announcement. THEN, there's also the open-mic competition with artists coming from all across the UK to take part, with the audience's favourite song based on the theme 'dream/nightmare launch party' going straight through to the second round! Be there, be a rhombus or if you can't make it and have a good reason then be excused this one time.

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA FOR ENTRY

If you have performed as a headline act to an audience of 400 or more people, you are not eligible to enter the Awards. If not, you are!

MADDEST FANBASE COMPETITION

Who's got the maddest fanbase?

For the 2009 awards artists were asked to mobilise their fanbase and get as many click and views as possible for their videos. Well this coming year, I thought we’d try something a little different! I’ve decided that it would be fun to reward the funniest fanbase. Regardless of whether your entry makes it into the top forty entries selected for the live heats, there will be a special prize for the artist whose entry attracts the most creative, mad and funny responses!

It may be that your friends write poems in your honour in the comments section under your video, or each write parts of a short story about you in individual fragments. They might even want to upload a video declaring their love for you/your entry! It’s basically a fun way to get your friends to support you in a creative manner and to create more buzz around your entry. So let everyone know that you have entered or are going to and get them involved!

The prize will be five free tickets to the final of the Awards on March 26th at New Players Theatre for you and/or your friends and the invitation to play a 10-15 minute set at a future Avin a Larf Musical Comedy Showcase (paid gig).

OPEN-MIC COMP AT LAUNCH ON 22ND

If you want to take part in the open-mic competition at the Launch of the 2010 Awards on the 22nd of October (perform an original song based on either your dream/nightmare launch party - best entry gets a bye to the second round of the Awards), drop me a line at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk and I'll put you on the list! It's going to be a great night, hope to see as many of you there as possible! Starts at 7.30 and the open/mic madness will be starting from 9pm! Woop woop! Some great entries so far, keep them coming in!

FINAL CONFIRMED

The final for the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards will take place at 8pm on Friday 26th of March at the New Players Theatre very close to Embankment and Trafalgar Square. It's a really gorgeous venue...looking forward to seeing who all be playing! Also, Time Out Comedy Editor Tim Arthur and Leisa Rea from last year's winners, Adams and Rea, will be judges for the Awards (more judges tbc). Hope to see lots of you at the Launch Party on the 22nd! Some really funny entries in already, looking forward to seeing all the others too!

LAUNCH PARTY FOR THE AWARDS

If you are free on Thursday 22nd October, come to the launch party for the 2010 Musical Comedy Awards! It's going to be at the Wilmington Arms from 7.30 onwards, all the tables and chairs will be taken away so that it can accommodate the swarming crowds (I will occasionally get down on my hands and knees to form a human chair for you to relax on).

It will be a lovely opportunity to all get together and party, plus there will be an open-mic competition going on from 9 onwards, where artists are invited to get on stage and perform a song based on the two following options (creativity works best within boundaries man...)

1. My dream launch party

2. My nightmare launch party

At the end of the evening the funniest/best song will be decided by the audience (amazing transparent voting procedures such as the loudest cry of enthusiasm currently being deliberated over) and the winner will get a bye through to the second round of the Awards!

We are totally going to take over the Wilmo both in the hired space and the main bar, it's going to be a mega musical comedy shake-up and a mad night of fun! If you'd like to come and if you'd like to enter the open mic sing song (will also be ok to rock up on the evening), drop me an email at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk! Apologies for it being a Thursday night, I think quite a few cases of Swine-Flu may be reported to employers across the land on Friday 23rd!

If you haven't entered the Awards yet, you've got till December 12th but it doesn't hurt to get yourself in there early!

Can't wait for the party and all the madness that will ensue! More to follow later...

Cash prize and dates for live heats booked!

Just to let you know the dates well in advance for the live heats...if you are one of the lucky forty to be selected from this year's entrants (judges will select their favourite forty acts based on artistic merit from the entries uploaded to the groups section, judges tbc) then these will be the heats:

First round

Saturday January 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th 2010, Wilmington Arms, London: 1.30-4pm. There will be four heats of ten artists doing a five minute slot to showcase their talent. From each heat of ten, five will progress to the next round on the basis of audience and judge votes.

Quarter-Finals

Saturday February 13th and 20th, Wilmington Arms, London, 1.30-4pm. There will be two heats of ten artists doing a five minute slot. Again, from each heat of ten, five artists will progress to the Semi-Finals on the basis of audience and judge votes.

Semi-Finals

Saturday February 27th, Wilmington Arms London, 1.30-4pm. Each of the ten artists will have a 8-10 minute slot. Five artists will progress to the Final on the basis of audience and judge votes.

I'm still waiting for confirmation of dates for the final at the Pleasance, Islington. I hope advance knowledge of those dates will be of use, make sure you get your entry in before December 12th, preferably a lot before if you can to help generate buzz for your entry. Also, as last year there will be a cash prize of £500, a beautiful trophy and a good deal of press coverage for the Awards. Get song-writing!

Entries for the Awards now accepted - upload to the Awards section

There are still a few things to move around and change over (e.g. terms and conditions need to be adapted for 2010), but if you've already got an entry you'd like to put forward for the 2010 Awards, please upload it as normal and then enter it to the Awards section of the site! It can be an entirely new video or one that you're proud of and have already uploaded to the site - go for your best work! I'm talking to venues about where to host the heats and fixing dates, should have that hopefully sorted out quite soon! Very much looking forward to seeing all the entries over the next few months from all of you and other unknown artists too!

Get ready for the Musical Comedy Awards 2010

Firstly, thanks to all who came down to the rocking show at Edinburgh! Really good to see so many of you there and the nine acts were superb...a truly spectacular showcase of musical comedy!

Although dates and venues haven't been finalised, here is the draft plan for the Musical Comedy Awards 2010. Artists wanting to enter must submit a video entry on this website by December (dates tbc). Judges will then select their favourite forty entries (subject to change), which will then progress to a series of live heats in London, taking place from January onwards and culiminating in a live final in the middle of March. The first round will have four live heats, with ten artists competing and five going through each time. These twenty will then compete in two more heats, again with five going through each time. These ten will again compete in a semi-final, with five going through. Then the remaining five will compete in a live final. The live heats will be judged by a combination of audience and judge votes. Rather than having a category for Best Act and Best Newcomer, the Awards will be aimed more at nurturing emerging talent. The heats and final will include guest performances from artists that are 'more established' on the circuit alongside the competitors, but we'd like to make the Awards more about showcasing artists that are currently breaking through onto the circuit. I'm looking at how best to present the content in the site in terms of reorganising the material to indicate which entries are from the 2009 Awards and which ones for the coming competition - more to follow soon. There will again be a cash prize and much kudos for the winners!

There'll be more details soon on dates, venues and other issues, but meanwhile keep December earmarked as a time to have your entries ready. As last year, you don't need to have a polished ten million dollar video, it's all about the art man (and having a friend who can film it for you/webcam). It's going to be amazing! I'm also planning another big showcase in October or November time and a big party to launch the Awards in London in December. If you have any queries or suggestions, feel free to contact me on ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk.

Press Release for Edinburgh Showcase

TUBORG MUSICAL COMEDY SHOWCASE

Pleasance Queen Dome: Wednesday, 19th August 2009 10pm. £12, £10 concession.

Following on from the success of this yearʼs inaugural Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards and the Time Out Critics Choice showcase at Madame Jo Joʼs, Avin a Larf has put together a tantalising showcase of our nationʼs finest musical comedians for one night.

Musical comedy is experiencing a renaissance in this country: a glance at the If.comedy award rosters of the past few years shows just how often musical comedians have walked away with the top prizes (notably David OʼDoherty, Tom Basden and Tim Minchin). Avin a Larf is a company that is dedicated to promoting the venerable art of musical comedy as an independent genre.

Featuring If.comedy nominee and rising star of the circuit Pippa Evans, winners of the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards Adams and Rea, BBC Radio 2 star and Chortle Award Nominee Wilson Dixon and the hottest cabaret duo since pointy bras were invented, Frisky and Mannish, this is the best chance at the festival to catch a glimpse of the diversity and brilliance of this resurgent genre. If those four fine acts were not enough, BBC3 Comedy Shuffleʼs Ginger and Black will knock you for six with their deadpan double act, alongside stars of www.musicalcomedy.co.uk Brigitte Aphrodite, the inimitable singer-poet, Lazyhand, the finest Scottish purveyors of musical innuendo and hot new talent Kevin Davidson. Compere for the evening will be the fantastic Irish musical comedian (Irelandʼs self-proclaimed sixth best rapper), Rob Broderick.

"...this is a venerable artform in itself, thoroughly deserving of the attention focused on it by this new award. Hopefully, it'll silence the sceptics and drive a generation of wannabe Victoria Woods and Ivor Cutlers straight to their pianos and harmoniums. Stay tuned." The Guardian March 09

More information on the evenings acts:

Pippa Evans: (IF.Comedy Award Nominee 2008) - “She is fantastic” - TIME OUT

Wilson Dixon: (Star of BBC Radio 2ʼs The Wilson Dixon Line) - “Gutbustingly funny” - THE SCOTSMAN

Adams and Rea: (Best Act Winners of TMCA 2009) - "Much salacious booty shaking...Musically astute and gleefully un-PC, they deserve a bigger stage”. SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Frisky and Mannish: (Finalists of the TMCA 2009) “White-hot ones to watch” - Time Out Critic's Choice 2008/9

Ginger and Black: (As seen on BBC3ʼs Comedy Shuffle) - “Ginger and Black are a polished, circuit-ready act”. CHORTLE

Brigitte Aphrodite: (Shortlisted for Final of TMCA 2009) - "utterly eccentric masterpieces...... her talent is in abundance and there is literally no other like her." VOLT MAGAZINE

Lazyhand: (Shortlisted for Final of TMCA 2009) - Scotlandʼs naughtiest...”very original and very funny” - PURPLE COMEDY

MC ROB BRODERICK - “Very funny, fresh and endlessly creative… A star of- the-future” TIME OUT

For further information please contact Ed Chappel on 07791914383 or by email at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk

Get tickets for the Showcase on August 19th, 10pm, Pleasance Queen Dome

Tickets now available for Edinburgh Tuborg Musical Comedy Showcase

With a Time Out Critics Choice under their belt from the last London showcase at Madame Jo Jo's, the organisers of the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards bring together some of the finest musical comedians on the circuit under one roof for a night of genius. With performances from PIPPA EVANS, WILSON DIXON, ADAMS & REA, FRISKY AND MANNISH, GINGER & BLACK, BRIGITTE APHRODITE, LAZYHAND and MC ROB BRODERICK. Come to the gorgeous Queen Dome and witness the musical comedy renaissance for yourself!

Get tickets for the Showcase on August 19th, 10pm, Pleasance Queen Dome

Coming soon: gigs list and chance to advertise your shows! P.S Don't forget the map!

Soon we will be introducing the musical comedy calendar, giving artists the opportunity to post their gigs on this here dedicated musical comedy platform. You will also be able to link to ticket purchasing sites and your event page which should be helpful. So, if you've got gigs lined-up, be sure to let me know by sending an email to ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk - I'll put your shows on the calendar! With Edinburgh coming up, it's hard to make your flyer stand out. If you're performing at the festival and want to advertise your flyer prominently on this site (to get an idea, see the posters for the Musical Comedy Showcase on the right-hand side of the site) let me know and I can arrange that for a small fee, either for 2 weeks or for the whole of August. Also, if you haven't done already, drop me an email if you'd like to be on the musical comedy map! If you're up at Edinburgh on August 19th, come to the Musical Comedy Showcase at the Pleasance Queen Dome at 10pm - featuring Pippa Evans from Radio 4, Wilson Dixon from Radio 2, winners of the Awards Adams and Rea, BBC3's Ginger and Black, stars of the site Frisky and Mannish, Brigitte Aphrodite, Lazyhand and Kevin Davidson, hosted by compere Rob Broderick. Hell yeah!

Catch stars of the site and of the wider community this Sunday 5th July at the WIlmington Arms!

Check out the fine Line-up of musical comedians for you this Sunday:

Miaowsical Comedy: A Place For Cool Cats

Danny Hurst: Watch Danny's amazing song 'Everyone's Gay' www.musicalcomedy.co.uk/video/191/Danny-Hurst--Everyones-Gay!

Alexandra Clarke: This very talented musical comedian lady is in the semi-finals for the prestigious Amused Moose LaughOff '09

Sanity Valve: Da mega shizz: Two crazy rappers in the spirit of Missy B meets Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen - www.myspace.com/uksanityvalve

Ben Glasstone: part of the magical folk band that was 'Soup', Ben makes wonderful, erudite, satirical music for your delight. Listen to his brilliant 'Man at the Door' here: www.musicalcomedy.co.uk/video/226/Man-at-the-Door

Kevin Davidson: one part of the brilliant Ska band 'Oystar', performing here with his amazing solo material: Watch Oystar's top 25 hit 'I fought the Lloyds' here: www.musicalcomedy.co.uk/video/119/I-fought-the-Lloyds

Tickets are only £5. If you fancy popping along visit the Facebook event page and follow the link Click here

Win tickets to the showcase on July 16th

There's a competition to win tickets for the showcase on the Tuborg site! Just follow the link below and go for it dudes!

Tuborg competition!

Showcase at Madame Jo Jo's on July 16th

It's going to be a very special night: here's the Press Release

Musical comedy is in rude health!

Tonight's showcase, presented by Avin A Larf, features a selection of the finalists and performers from April's Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards - some of the hottest musical comedy acts of the moment including the electrifying Frisky and Mannish; and is hosted by the darling of London cabaret, Des O'Connor. There will also be a special guest performance from the founder of the Free Fringe and musical comedy institution, Peter Buckley Hill.

That traditional old English genre, the comedy song, is alive and well in the post-modern world which, in recent years, has seen the emergence of such giants as Bill Bailey and Flight of the Conchords.

At one time perceived as a poor relation, neither comedy nor music, musical comedy is finally getting the recognition it deserves with a new appreciation for the venerable art and craft of comedy song writing. Musical comedy sits between standup and cabaret, says Avin A Larf's Ed Chappel, and his mission is to "promote musical comedy as a stand-alone genre and create an independent platform for emerging and established musical comedians".

This evening is perfect for those who like their comedy to be not just clever, but unashamedly silly. It promises to be a glorious celebration of absurdity, wit and musical comedy genius.

Tonight's lineup:

Isy Suttie

"Her songs were hypnotic: blending hilarity, lyrical brilliance and pathos so adeptly" - Chortle.

Peter Buckley Hill

"A titan". The Scotsman

Frisky and Mannish

“White-hot ones to watch” - Time Out Critic's Choice 2008/9.

Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer

"Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer's 'chap-hop' ("reconnecting rap with the Queen's English") was note-perfect" - The Telegraph.

MC Des O' Connor

The night will be hosted by the fabulous, shocking, charming and entertaining darling of London cabaret, Des O' Connor: "A high degree of musical wit and lyricism … a thrill to watch" - The Guardian.

Book tickets in advance at www.wegottickets.com/event/51657

Musical Comedy Map!

Hey all, as you might have noticed on the About page, there's now a Musical Comedy map! The idea is for all the artists of the site to put themselves on the map and show just how many musical comedians there are dotted around the UK! Due to the huge demand from artists on the site looking to perform at musical comedy shows, I'm hoping that the map will be a useful tool for you to get in touch with those near you and perhaps put on something together. It should be up and running soon once a few technical issues have been sorted. I'm currently fleshing out the details on how Avin a Larf could support other shows organised by artists from the site and how it would all work. If you'd be interested in playing an organisational role in putting on shows with other artists from the site, get in touch! Would be amazing to have lots of really top draw Musical Comedy Showcases going on all across the country organised by artists from the site. I'll write more once all the details are all sorted, meanwhile, see the About section for details on how to put yourself on the map! There's also a link to the Facebook group, Twitter and wegottickets - type in Tuborg Musical Comedy Showcase to see details for the show on June 11th!

Monthly Showcases - lots of interest!

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded to my mail, it's really good to know so many of you want to perform! That gives me a lot of encouragement to organise the monthly shows, knowing that so many of you great artists want to play! The shows in June and July are all booked up, but I'll be planning a lot more, I hope in the near future to be able to book lots of paid gigs for the artists of the site!

Tickets available for the first Tuborg Musical Comedy Showcase PLUS a show at Madame Jo Jo's in July!

You can now get tickets for the first big show after the Awards: Click here for details on the line up

For those who don't use Facebook, type in Tuborg Musical Comedy Showcase from this link to We Got Tickets

There is going to be another showcase on July 23rd at the amazing Madame Jo Jo's! Just getting the brilliant Mel (see friends of Avin a Larf in the About section) to design some artwork for the flyer, but will fill you in with the details soon!

Line up for first Musical Comedy Showcase

Hey all! Hope you're enjoying the sun and running naked in slow-motion through fields to your own perfect soundtrack, at least in your minds...Alongside plans for the occasional big show at the Pleasance, I'm still looking into sorting venues for fixed monthly showcases for the artists of the site. In the meantime I've organised a big night for June 11th at the groovy Wilmington Arms. The first show after the Awards will have a very strong line-up, MC'd by the fantastic Mr Rob Broderick (MixtNutz on this site!), including:

Adams and Rea

Moonfish Rhumba

Sarah Louise Young

Brigitte Aphrodite

Jay Foreman

Carly Smallman

These monthly shows are gonna rock and hopefully over time, all of those who want to will get a chance to play! Come along and mix with the brethren! There'll be more details about this night and others to follow soon, until then let's keep parping on the tugboat of dreams xxx

Next Steps

First things first, here is a great review from the London Word: Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards.

The fact that it was a complete sell-out and the great feedback I've had from friends and complete strangers shows has been really encouraging, the concept does work and people really loved it! The plan now is to have the Awards each year, every now and then some more big shows at the Pleasance but also organise monthly shows to showcase the talent of the site. That way there'll be more chances for lots of you who've uploaded on to this site and made it what it is to come and play gigs. I'm currently talking to a number of great venues about these monthly plans and will keep you all updated! x

Winners announced!

Thanks to all who came to the show last night, it was such an awesome night! Really great to meet so many of the artists on the site, we'll have to get together more often, I'm sure there's lots of projects we can come up with in a musical comedy vein! For those of you who weren't there, the winner for this year's Best Act was Adams and Rea and the winner for the Best Newcomer was Jay Foreman. Congratulations to the winners and to all of the finalists! I hope you enjoyed the prizes and amazing trophies designed by Mel Sheppard! Reviews of the night and more to follow soon, but until then, happy Easter! xxx

Great review in the Guardian!

A really top report by Brian Logan from the Guardian for you all to read! Musical Comedy hits the right note.

Summary of the amazing night ahead and benefits for all artists of the site

To see more on the knock-out line-up for the big night see the Facebook event group.

All the artists who entered the competition are also entitled to two concessionary tickets and invited to come mingle at the Tuborg VIP reception for artists, members of the press and comedy industry. If you want to come to the reception drop me an email and I'll contact the Box Office to make sure you get an artist's pass. If you're an artist from the site who has already purchased and received a full-price ticket, you can take it to the Pleasance theatre and get a refund and replace it with a concessionary ticket. If it's on the way in the post, you can call up the theatre and get it refunded over the phone and get concessionary tickets sent instead. See you there, so soon now!

Finalists for the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards

From the shortlist of twenty, the judges selected the following five finalists to compete for the Best Act category:

Adams and Rea

Duncan Oakley

Frisky and Mannish

Howard Read

Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer

The Best Newcomer will be announced on the night (but we'll let the winner know before, don't want them sitting in the bath listening to Radio 4). Congratulations to the finalists! For the artists on the shortlist, don't forget that we're hoping to set up bi-monthly paid gigs to showcase the best artists from the site and the wider musical comedy community, so it would be great to have all the shortlisted acts play at some point!

(Deep trailer voice, with bits of discounted Wispa egg on my chin) This Easter, who will win the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards? See you on the 11th!

FINAL SHORTLIST

In alphabetical order, here is the judges' final shortlist for the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards:

Adams and Rea

Aliens Ate My Schnitzel

Ben Glasstone

Brigitte Aphrodite

Carly Smallman

Danny Hurst

Duncan Oakley

Frisky & Mannish

Hereldeduke

Howard Read

Jay Foreman

Jimmy

Lazy Hand

Moonfish Rhumba

More Silage

Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer

Oystar

Tillerpop

Vontergarten

Warburton

The five finalists will be announced this coming Tuesday!

So, all the entries are in!

Thanks so much to everyone who's entered the Awards, the response has been brilliant! The number of entries and the level of quality demonstrate how strong and diverse the emerging musical comedy scene is and how overdue we are for a celebration of the genre. The judges will have a veritable feast of gems to select from!

Due to tickets selling at a fast rate, I've decided to bring the naming of the final shortlist of twenty entries forward a bit to next weekend, as it would be pretty rubbish to get to the final and then for there to be not enough tickets left to invite your friends to come and support you! Don't worry if you've only recently entered, the five judges will be compiling their shortlist of twenty based not only on views, average rating and the number of times your song has been favourited, but also on editorial discretion - that means if you didn't accrue such a huge fanbase but have created a song that they deem to be of a very high quality, you can still progress to the next stage.

The five finalists for the Best Act Category will be announced soon after the shortlist has been published on this news page. The Best Newcomer will be selected from the final shortlist by the judges and announced on the night. Meanwhile, feel free to keep uploading new songs and promote your material on the site - although anything uploaded now won't be eligible for this year's Awards there will be a number of paid gigs to organise throughout the year based around the mad stuff you put up here. Keep an eye out for further announcements!

Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards

We've got sponsorship from Tuborg for the Awards! Let us all go forth and hug the Danish people! This is really great news and will raise the profile and credibility of the awards a good deal. Ideally, after the awards I'm hoping to have a set up in place, where there will be monthly showcases of the talent on the site and from the wider musical comedy community. This site is not just here for the Awards, we're going to be able to organise lots of gigs from the brilliant array of talent on the site, so keep uploading new songs and trying new things out. The plan is to have a big show each month, without the element of competition, where emerging and established stars perform a big old night of musical comedy together and demonstrate the talent and diversity of the genre. I'll know more about these plans after the Awards, but just to let you know that things are afoot!

There's also a facebook event up now, just type in Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards. Tickets are selling fast so get them while you can!

Don't forget the final deadline for entries is March 14th! After March 28th I'll sit down with the other judges and we'll select the five that will go through to the final. It's all getting closer now, really excited!

Rules changed to make it fairer

I've decided to change the second £500 prize from 'Online Public Vote' to 'Best Newcomer'. On reflection, awarding someone with £500 for having the most views doesn't seem fair on emerging musical comedy acts with less established fanbases. So the two prizes (both £500) are now 'Best Act', which will be the winner of the five finalists, decided by the jury on the night and the 'Best Newcomer', which will be the jury's favourite newcomer from the final shortlist of twenty acts. That way, both the best established and emerging musical comedians will be democratically selected by the human jury, not just clicks.

P.S. In order to qualify for the 'Best Newcomer' category, entrants don't need to be 'brand new' but must be unsigned and without agency representation.

Tickets on sale!

Tickets are now on sale for the Musical Comedy Awards at the Pleasance, London on April 11th. Alongside the five finalists, there will also be special guest performances from established greats such as Earl Oakin, Isy Suttie, Joanna Neary, London cabaret star Des O' Connor and Doctor Coca Cola Mcdonalds. Book early to avoid disappointment

P.S If you have a ticket and then get through to the final, your ticket will be refunded.

So far so good

We're really delighted with the entries we've had so far, some absolutely hilarious songs! The Awards is going to be a cracking night and we're hoping to organise lots of other paid spin-off gigs throughout the year based on the comedy songs that you upload here. We need to show some love to the groups section - the idea is that we can work together to create mad medleys of songs based around different themes and then take the best of the material to a good venue and perform it. If you have an idea for a funny theme that you think will resonate with everyone else, start a group and invite other members or your friends to come and join in and write some songs with you!