The highly excellent UK comedy website Chortle are running their annual awards competition, and everyone’s favourite shock-haired piano playing genius Tim Minchin has made it to the shortlist in a couple of categories. Now, I’m not typically one to try to influence democracy (although there was that incident where I won Beard Of The Month on www.travelbeard.com twice in succession, but I’m sure that was based on merit alone), it is important to make people aware of opportunities to support one’s comedy heroes…
The online poll is here, and voting closes at 15:00 GMT on February 12th. If you’re having trouble thinking of who to vote for because you don’t know who any of them are, I can also tell you that Andrew Maxwell is an excellent headliner (although Milton Jones would be more likely to turn that into a joke about corduroy pillows), and as far as theatre shows go, Russell Howard’s “Dingledodies” was excellent fun & he’s definitely worth checking out if you get the chance.
If you’re not familiar with Tim’s work, here’s a video of one of my favourite songs from his current show – who says that statistics and romance can’t mix?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaid72fqzNE
The full list of nominees for the Chortle awards is:
Best newcomer
Mike Wozniak
Pippa Evans
Daniel Simonsen
Seann Walsh
Breakthrough act
Sarah Millican
Andrew O’Neill
Bridget Christie
Carl Donnelly
Best compere
Dan Nightingale
Alun Cochrane
Stephen Grant
Rufus Hound
Best headliner
Andrew Maxwell
Paul Sinha
Rhod Gilbert
Milton Jones
Sketch, variety or character act
Count Arthur Strong
Tim Minchin
Pippa Evans
Wilson Dixon
Best full show
Rhod Gilbert And The Award-Winning Mince Pie
Richard Herring: The Headmaster’s Son
David O’Doherty: Let’s Comedy
Tim Minchin: Ready For This?
Best theatre show
Dylan Moran: This Is It
Russell Howard: Dingledoodies
Dara O’Briain
Frankie Boyle
Best DVD
Stewart Lee: 41st Best Stand-up
Tim Minchin: So Fucking Rock
Dara O’Briain Talks Funny
Frank Skinner Stand-Up
Best use of stand-up on TV or radio
Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better (R4)
4 Stands Up (R4)
Another Case Of Milton Jones (R4)
Live At The Apollo (BBC One)