2010 Time Out Sydney Comedy Award Winners

First published on 12 May 2010. Updated on 1 Jul 2010.

BEST INTERNATIONAL: The Pajama Men in The Last Stand to Reason
Runner up: Jason Byrne
The were Best Newcomer last year with their Versus vs Versus show, and now they're our pick for Best International with The Last Stand to Reason. Can we pick 'em or what? Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez's inventive mix of physical comedy and quick-fire wit is getting them rave notices all over the world, but let's be clear: we saw them first.
WE SAID: "The Last Stand To Reason has more of a throughline than the bit-heavy Versus, but that doesn't stop the humour from coming thick and fast... For sheer laughs-per-second, this is a another triumph."
THEY SAID: "Comedy awards don't mean anything unless you're shallow and desperate for attention. Thanks guys, this means the world to us!"

BEST LOCAL: Axis of Awesome in Infinity Rock Explosion
Runner up: Steve Hughes
AoA have just gotten better and better, and their Infinity Rock Explosion show took all the best bits about the trio and combined them into a satisfying whole.
WE SAID: "The slinky loverman soul of ‘Sexual Harassment' could yet become their own ‘Business Time'. Awesome, your time has come."

THEY SAID: "It's an honour to be put into a field with fellow award-winners such as Dustin Hoffman, Avatar and Sandra Bullock, all who have won awards at some point in the past. Thanks to the wonderful Ollie and Robyn from Star 100 Entertainment, our superb publicist Hannah Watkins, the amazing Susie Youssef, all our fantastic Birdplane dancers as well as all the audience peoples who came to our show. Except for that weird couple. You know who you are."

STOP PRESS: Axis of Awesome fim their live DVD at the Metro on Tue 8 Jun!

BEST NEWCOMER: Cloud Girls in World
Runner up: Tommy Bradson in When the Sex is Gone
The longer format of World plus a major leap forward in the quality of their writing is now supporting the always-strong comedic chemistry and timing of Madeleine Culp and Jen Carnovale.
WE SAID: "Semi-improvised monologues in a tattoo parlour and the sport of Ball Hiding are pieces of surreal genius, and the structure of the show means that if one section isn't quite nailing it, there's another along in a second. Possibly involving dance."
THEY SAID: "Holy shitballs! We can't believe we won something! We've been celebrating ever since. We've both bought ourselves something special - a coat in the shape of a rabbit (Jennifer) and a ticket to the USA (Madeleine). Both practical purchases. Hopefully this award will bring us much closer to realising our dream of becoming professional Parisian Renaissance Actors. We want to intimately hug every person who came. Thank you so much: the show really isn't even half as fun with no one in the audience. Big thanks to Sydney Comedy Festival and Time Out Sydney! We want to thank both our families, friends, otters and pavlovas, who after all are the real winners of the day."

JURY PRIZE: Dead Cat Bounce
Everyone we spoke to had one act that either they'd seen, seen several times or had heard how badly they'd missed out by not seeing: Ireland's musical comedy combo Dead Cat Bounce. Who among us can't relate to an opening line like "I don't know why but when I see a midget I just wanna pick him up and run and see how far I can get"?
WE SAID: "While Dead Cat Bounce's songs are funny as hell, the thing that makes this show so good is the interaction of the performers in their rock-cliché personas... I defy anyone to leave the show after the rock explosion of ‘Four Lads' without the chorus endlessly circling their head."
THEY SAID: "Thank you very much for the lovely comedy award. We're on tour in Gosford right now, but as you can see that didn't stop us celebrating. If you could send us the prize money as soon as possible, that'd be great as it was pretty expensive champagne. There's prize money, right? Also, how big is the trophy? There's a trophy, right? We were led to believe there would be a trophy."

BEST OF THE FEST: Glenn Wool
Any comedian can turn up at the comedy festival and do a show, but few could also decide to debut an unrehearsed double-hander, hashed out remotely from different continents and then change it on the fly during the show's run. One man did that, however: Canada's Glenn Wool, teaming up with Heath "Chopper" Franklin for Satan's Workshop. The show was a mixed success, but bless ‘em for trying to do something bold and daring when the opportunity presented itself.

WE SAID: "This tightly-written show took in everything from men in suits destroying the world to metrosexual homophobia – and his Glenn-vs-London-taxi-driver round of ‘I'm Not A Racist But' takes a familiar subject in gasping-for-breath hilarious new direction."
HE SAID: "This is my first festival honour and I would like to thank Sydney for breaking my comedy award virginity. I feel like a girl putting her prom dress back on with messy hair and a story to tell her friends. I'm sure there will be other awards in the future but this one is special. Hey, it's not like we're going to get married. We're young. I don't want to be tied down to one city. There are going to be other towns with other journalists and judges – and let's be honest, come next year, you'll be giving this to some other comedian, so let's just enjoy what we have now and not think about the future. I would also like to thank Heath Franklin and the hilarious topic of sweatshops for making Satan's Workshop all that it was and will continue to be. Lastly, everyone at Century Entertainment and the Sydney Comedy Store: without them I'd never have met you, Sydney."

PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Tommy Bradson in When the Sex is Gone
We're with you, Sydney: the runner up for Best Newcomer was far and away the most popular act in our public vote, and deservedly so: who wouldn't find a twisted cabaret presented by a tormented alcoholic hermaphrodite downright refreshing, not to say hilarious?
WE SAID: "There's genuinely nothing else like it in a festival which is, almost by definition, mainly stand up comedy... Here's hoping that next year's festival chooses more acts of this daring calibre."
THEY SAID: "It was not long ago I sat huddled in my Inner West shoebox dreaming up excuses to explain my cross-dressing habits and drunken desire to fist-fight with my friends. The product of those dreams being When the Sex is Gone. It is with great pleasure I accept this accolade. To Mama and Papa and Ryan and my friends and the sordid company I shared during my season at The Factory. So long as people keep showing up, I'll keep wearing heels and swearing like a fishwife. Many thanks. Many times over."