Musical Comedy Awards 2025 finalists
April is just around the corner, which means it must nearly be time for the annual WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards final. The 17th competition will be at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Saturday 12th.
Having taken part in a number of knockout heats, 12 acts are now ready to follow in the footsteps of previous finalists like Abandoman, Rachel Parris, Mae Martin, Jay Foreman and Adam Kay.
With Bill Bailey now the Official Patron of the competition, it looks set to be a brilliant year. Nick Horseman, the competition's long-time resident MC, will be overseeing proceedings and, whilst the judges deliberate, the audience will be treated to a set by Best Newcomer winner Roops and laughs from "unpretentious pseudo-comedomusicologist" headliner Jazz Emu.
You can see the list of finalists below, with the biographies they have supplied. Check out the bottom of the article for a discount code on tickets too.
Eoghan Collins
Eoghan Collins is an Irish comic who blends tongue and cheek jokes into spontaneous catchy melodies with an overall affable presence - as though life were a musical with less happy endings. He was also a finalist in Ireland's Show Me The Funny 2024.
Joe da Costa
Joe da Costa is a 6'1, London based musical comedian and Aquarius, who has never been successfully prosecuted by the police. Joe plays guitar and sings... Simultaneously! (They said it couldn't be done.) He sits somewhere between Flight of the Conchords, Bo Burnham and Bill Bailey. Joe has scored music for 8 Out Of 10 cats, Richard Ayoade's Question Team, Nick Helm, The Delightful Sausage (Amy Gledhill & Chris Cantrill), Luke McQueen, Mark Silcox and many more.
Shots At The Dragon
Childhood friends Kanwar Crosse and Sam Hall started Shots At The Dragon as an experimental hip hop duo. They quickly realised their experiments were too silly to be taken seriously and decided to embrace their mutual affection for comedy. Since Summer 2024, Shots At The Dragon have been creating short and long form musical comedy videos which you can find on their Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The Musical Comedy Awards has been their first foray into live performance - so if you don't enjoy them, be kind.
Sarah Gaul
Sarah Gaul is a London-based Aussie musical comedian, and in her short time in London so far has won King Gong at The Comedy Store, appeared at the Backyard Comedy Club and alongside Dylan Moran as well as has been a guest on Chris Moyles' Radio X show. She is the breakout star of Australian comedy feature film Hot Mess, which was selected for film festivals all over the world. As a musical comedian Sarah has toured internationally and spent a year in New York where she made regular appearances at Gotham Comedy Club, Club Cumming, and Broadway Comedy Club.
Zara Gladman
Zara Gladman is "one of the most-shared names in Scottish comedy" (The National), a "sharp sketch comedian" (The Scotsman) and someone whose "star seems set to only continue rising" (The List). Her viral comedy creations (as seen on Channel 4's TikTok, BBC and more) have been viewed by millions. In 2024 she was shortlisted for the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award. On stage, Zara presents a comedic blend of 60s-inspired pop, accompanied by her long-suffering musical partner, Stu.
Jonathan Oldfield
Jonathan Oldfield was a BBC New Comedy Award Finalist 2024 and second place winner in the Leicester Square Theatre Sketch Off 2024. He co-created and stars in BBC Radio 4 series Time Of The Week - alongside Sian Clifford - which was recently named Best Radio Sketch Show at the British Comedy Guide Awards 2024. The series has also been nominated for a Chortle Award and a BBC Audio Drama Award, with Series 2 airing autumn 2025.
Jack McMinn
Jack McMinn is a musical comedian based in Oxford, who writes and performs (hopefully) funny songs for piano. He co-runs the city's critically acclaimed Live & Peculiar cabaret night ["unique and delightful", "beloved" - Daily Info], which was specially selected for the Offbeat Oxford Festival 2024. He is also the author of the Oxford Comedy Archive, a free online museum about the social history of Oxford comedy - the Archive was featured in Chortle and has been used in a recent exhibition in the Museum of Oxford about Ronnie Barker.
Paras Patel
A musical comedian, joke strummer and professional chord butcher. A finalist in the 2024 So You Think You're Funny? competition, Paras is a musical comedian who expertly blends witty wordplay with unquestionable guitar skills - comedy and chaos in perfect harmony! Armed with six strings and zero shame, his entire set is one big sad song.
Alex Prescot
Alex is a musical comic who mainly improvises off crowd work. He was the Clap Back To Reality Winner 2023/24, a previous Chichester New Act & Kingston New Act finalist and was shortlisted for Chortle Hotshots 2025.
Abi Sharp
Abi Sharp performs nerdy, feminist, and occasionally filthy musical comedy. Tickling your funny bone and also the ivories, Abi has converted a childhood of classical piano into an adulthood of questionable musical comedy. A single threat with an incredible one-octave vocal range, Abi knows several chords and isn't afraid to use them. Fans of Crazy Ex Girlfriend will love Abi Sharp's award-winning musical comedy, which combines classic jazz and Broadway musical influences with hilarious perspectives on the bizarre idiosyncrasies of 21st-century life. Abi has performed in New York, San Francisco and London, and you can follow her on Instagram where she occasionally posts sub-viral content to her dozens of followers.
Vinny Shiu
Vinny Shiu is a London-based stand-up comedian in his 20s who combines comedy songs with stories and jokes to highlight his unique upbringing: growing up in the West as part of an East Asian family. His act includes observational humour about cultural differences between East and West, the challenges of growing up with traditional Asian parents, and the identity crisis that comes with looking different from his peers. Winner of Southampton Comedian of the Year 2023. Selected for Leicester Comedy Festival Circuit Breakers 2024. Finalist in British Comedian of the Year 2024. 2nd Place in Bath Comedy Festival New Act Competition 2024. Finalist in The Bristol Comedy Competition 2025.
Holly Spillar
Holly Spillar takes to the stage armed with nothing but a little red loop pedal and a dream. 'Ethereal and enthralling' (LAMOnaise) in equal measures, Holly's debut show was on of the ten best-reviewed comedy shows of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. Let her transport you to her hauntingly ludicrous world.
Best Newcomer: Roops
Roops is a fresh face (figuratively speaking) in the comedy scene, but he's already turning heads with his unexpected rap bangers about everyday topics, with bars that have no business going so hard, over his self-produced beats. A lifelong musician, he also sings, raps, and plays the mandola in the folk(ish) band Hugmonger.
Talking about selecting Roops as their Newcomer winner, the judges say: "Having only just recently joined the comedy circuit, Roops delivered barnstorming MCA performances with his hilarious, high-octane raps and took the Phoenix by storm! We are thrilled to have him as our Best Newcomer!"
MCA promoters Ed Chappel and Tamara Cowan say: "The line-up this year is so incredibly strong - we had a few former finalists that didn't make it through plus acts who are receiving nominations right, left and centre and other acts achieving huge viral success online with their hilarious videos who didn't get through to the final. None of the 12 finalists have reached the final before and it is going to be amazing celebration of the UK's best musical comedians!"
The WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards 2025 final is on Saturday 12th April at London's Bloomsbury Theatre. Tickets
Special offer: enter the code MCASPECIAL to get seats for £15 (offer expires 31st March)
Meanwhile the last premium stalls are available via WeGotTickets.com
Can't make it in person? The show will be livestreamed via NextUp. Streaming passes are £15 and there is a 25% discount on yearly access with the code MCA2025.
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