The Pun

Barry

By Stu Leader ⋅ May 25, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

What the hell is a Barry? It’s the award given to the best show of the Festival each year, named as such in honor of the first patron of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Barry Humphries.
This year, the nominees are;

Daniel Kitson
If you don’t know who he is then we don’t think you really care about this article. He’s nominated, and if you’ve seen him before you will know why.

Tim Minchin
After the Best Newcomer Perrier in Edinburgh, Minchin has returned to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a killer show that certainly deserves its nomination for the coveted Barry award.

Mark Watson
Within the first week of the Festival, there are always murmurs about a show that no one was really talking about previous to the performer coming out. This year, that show was Mark Watson: 50 Years Before Death And The Awful Prospect Of Eternity. Word quickly spread, and the show was selling out in no time.

Sam Simmons
After taking home the best comedy award for an emerging artist at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Simmons is at it again and up for the Barry this time. His show is most often described as bizarre but is probably more aptly described as ‘eclectic’ or ‘different’, with music, songs, stories, jokes and a touch of the absurd.

Charlie Pickering
The little local who could, Pickering has done it how you should. He’s toured the country, moved to Sydney for a radio job, come back to ‘keep it real’, won the Piece of Wood award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, been nominated for the Perrier??I suppose it might be time for a Barry.

Demetri Martin
So his apartment burnt down and now we have to give him an award? Don’t the Americans have enough already? Please, people, let’s not give him a Barry??or, okay?? just because he’s ‘good’ maybe we should.