Comedy festival wraps up after 7,000+ performances

Musical comedian Gillian Cosgriff has won the top award for most outstanding show  at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Her uplifting show, Actually, Good, was based around friends and audience members’ lists of things that bring happiness – and was the only solo show to receive a five-star Chortle review this festival.

It also won the Golden Gibbo – an award given in memory of the late comic Lynda Gibson, aimed at finding a local, independent show that pursues the artists’ idea more than it pursues commercial gain.

Cosgriff triumphed over nine other shortlisted comedians to take the honours, including Brits Jordan Gray, Leo Reich, Liz Kingsman and Rosie Jones.

Other nominees were Australia’s Emma Holland, Hannah Camilleri, Laura Davis and Tom Ballard plus New Zealand’s Guy Williams.

Camilleri’s character-based show Lolly Bag won the Pinder Prize, which honours festival co-founder John Pinder, and supports a performer's costs of travelling to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Best newcomer – which is only open to antipodean performers – also went to a  musical comedy act. Aiden Willcox & Isaac Haigh triumphed for their show  Songs From The Heart In The Hole Of My Bottom. 

The People’s Choice Award for the most popular show of the Festival, as determined by the ticket sales, went to Urzila Carlson for Just No!

The Directors’ Choice Award, awarded by the festival director in consultation with festival programming colleagues, went to Takashi Wakasugi – Japanese Worry. A special ‘legends’ mention was made for Circus Oz, back with anew show 30 years after their first festival appearance. 

The Piece of Wood comics’ choice award – an actual piece of wood containing the bite marks of previous winners – was awarded to Dan Rath. Selected by past winners it is presented to a peer for ‘doin’ good stuff ‘n’ that’.

Over 25 days, the festival has hosted more than 7,000 individual performances of 636 shows.

And the festival appears to have brought the crowds back to central Melbourne. Footfall sensors indicated that the number of people around the Melbourne Town Hall festival hub was up almost 110 per cent compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 benchmark. 

» Read all 56 of our Melbourne International Comedy Festival reviews here.

Published: 22 Apr 2023