Tim Key up for Australian comedy prize

Barry Award shortlist out

Tim Key has been nominated for the most prestigious prize in Australian comedy.

The comic has made the shortlist for the Barry Award for the best show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his new offering Megadate.

Key won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2009 and has recently appeared in Art in the West End and as Alan Partridge’s radio sidekick, Simon. Megadate is his first show since 2014.

Also on the shortlist are Americans Alex Edelman, who won best newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe, for his new show Just For Us, and Natalie Palamides for her absurd physical comedy show Laid, which also won Edinburgh’s best newcomer gong last August.

The list also includes veteran Australian double act Lano & Woodley – who won the Perrier in 1994 but reunited for the first time in a decade for this show, Fly.

Quirky Sam Campbell has two chances of winning, for his solo show and for playing the sidekick to Helen Bidou, the monstrous daytime TV fashion expert created by Australian comedy stalwart Anne Edmonds.

Rounding off the list are Celia Pacquola and New Zealand's Rose Matefeo, both regular performers in the UK.

Barry Award

Also announced today are the nominees for the Golden Gibbo for the most artistic independently produced Australian act. They are Laura Frew & Michelle Brasier who perform as Double Denim, Garry Starr, Cameron Venn, Julia Rorke & Elysia Hall and Sophie Joske & Anna Piper Scott.

Winners will be announced in the early hours of next Saturday morning, UK time, or lunchtime Melbourne time.