LONDON: Wilmington Arms

Saturday 26th February, 2011

1:15pm

Event information

Now in its third year, the Musical Comedy Awards (MCA) are back for another celebration of the UK's best emerging and established musical comedians!

After the total sell out success of last year's MCA, WeGotTickets have this year partnered up with Avin a Larf to sponsor the Best Newcomer Category in this prestigious 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 the genre, the MCA have grown in stature to become a key date in the comedy calendar and a launch pad for many careers.

Having been selected by a panel of industry judges from the website www.musicalcomedy.co.uk, the UK's top 40 emerging musical comedy acts will compete in a series of heats between January and March at the Wilmington Arms, with each show headlined by established stars of the circuit. From each heat of ten acts, the audience and judges will vote for their favourite five acts to progress to the next stage. The Final of the MCA will then take place on March 19th at the New Players Theatre, Embankment.

The contestants taking part in each heat will be announced shortly, but meanwhile here is a look at the headliners we've got lined up for you this year:

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

Jan 15th: 10 acts + HORSE AND LOUIS (MCA 2010 Runners Up) - 'See them before they're big, otherwise you'll regret it.' - BRITISH COMEDY GUIDE

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

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

Quarter Finals:

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

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

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

Grand Final @ New Players Theatre, March 19th, 8pm:

The 5 Finalists and...

MITCH BENN (BBC Radio 4's 'Now Show', 'Mitch Benn and the Distractions) - 'Razor sharp observation slickly packaged in truly funny songs' - THE SCOTSMAN

DJ DANNY - (As seen on BBC3's 'Mischief', Newsnight's 'Party Anthems', 6Music and Radio 4's 'The Museum of Everything' and 'Danny Robins' Music Therapy) - "The cult of the superstar DJ is ripe for sending up and nobody does it better than Danny Robins." EVENING STANDARD

GARETH RICHARDS - (Nominee for Fosters Comedy Best Newcomer 2010) - 'Exceptionally inspired and truly memorable stand-up' - CHORTLE

All of the MCA shows will be hosted by the 2010 MCA Runners Up, the brilliant HORSE & LOUIS.

Line-ups subject to change. Tickets for heats exclusively available from www.wegottickets.com