Musical Comedy Awards finalists 2017

The comedians who have made it through to the WeGotTickets Muscial Comedy Awards 2017 final have been announced.

Friz Frizzle, Will Hislop, Katie Pritchard, Two Plus Ones, Hurt & Anderson, Rasputin's Lunchbox, Tom Taylor, Shitstorm, Matt Hutson and Jamie D'Souza will take part in the final, which is due to take place in London on Monday 10th April.

The organisers say: "Now in its 9th year, the MCAs are the annual celebration of the UK's best comedy acts that combine music with comedy. If you like Bill Bailey, Flight of the Conchords and Tim Minchin, this is the show for you."

This year's final will be the biggest in the competition's history, as it comes to Shaftesbury Avenue's oldest theatre: The Lyric.
Each of the ten finalists will perform their best 8 minutes of musical comedy material, and the final - hosted by comedy character Tina T'urner Tea Lady - will also feature a performance from last year's winners, Four Femmes on the Thames.

The winner will be decided by an industry panel of judges, with sponsors WeGotTickets also presenting a prize for which act had the best audience reaction. The Best Newcomer prize will also be awarded.

Tickets to the final are now available

Here are the biographies of the acts:

Friz Frizzle

Friz Frizzle is a Songruiner. Armed with a piano, he will take the songs you know and love and mess around with the lyrics until you don't want to know or love them anymore. It's better than it sounds. Has written for BBC Radio 4's The Now Show. Sell out EdFringe shows 2015 and 2016.

Will Hislop

Will Hislop is a 23-year-old actor, writer and stand-up. He is one half of sketch duo Giants whose debut show last year was in the Metro's Top Three Sketch Shows and the Guardian's Recommended Edinburgh Shows. As a writer he has credits for ITV, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra. In 2015, he was a runner up in the Musical Comedy Awards as part of the infamous double act DW. This year he's back in the final with his solo act.

Katie Pritchard

Like the most memorable of UK gales, Katie Pritchard is blowing over the patio furniture of comedy, partially damaging the garden fence of genre and dropping a large, sturdy branch onto the car bonnet of musicality. For Katie specialises in all things Comedy Carnage, a term of her own (and in no way self-important) devising. To extend a metaphor already stretched to its limit, like all the best weather-based wind events, Comedy Carnage sweeps up a lot of stuff and hurls it together in one beautiful whirlwind of chaos. In this instance that chaos is jokes, music, poems, dancing, and facts, rather than an actual literal whirlwind of cows, patio umbrellas, bill-boards and roofing materials, which would be terrifying for her audience, but is co-incidentally the name of her next show.

Two Plus Ones

Two Plus Ones is a fire emoji sketch comedy trio made up of Luke Sumner, Joshan Chana and Archie Henderson. They met at university, where they decided to channel their mutual affection and crippling need for validation into something creative. After their cult hit debut Mothers at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016, they went on to win Audience Choice at London Sketchfest, and are currently gigging in London and working towards their second show: Huge Night In. They have also written for BBC Radio 4's Newsjack. They like to make musical comedy with a pumping beat and thumping undercurrent of social insecurity.

Hurt & Anderson

Georgia Hurt and Laura Anderson are fast making a name for themselves as an exciting sketch and musical comedy act on the London circuit. As finalists in the 2017 Leicester Square Sketch Off competition and Comedy Gladiators competition, Hurt and Anderson have already had an astonishing start to 2017. From the satirical to the surreal, their material makes them a "stand-out favourite" act (TNT Magazine).

Hurt and Anderson are originally from Bristol, and met while at school. Their on stage chemistry and rapport is a result of a friendship spanning more than a decade. They first began gigging in London in 2015, and are now regular performers at Monkey Business Comedy Club, Same Again Barman, Memoirs of a Geezer, and Pretty Faces Sketch Night.

Rasputin's Lunchbox

This crowd pleasing act is bursting with silliness that takes you to the depths of hilarity and back again, via quirky, mcQuirky roundabout. Wonderfully comic songs full of energy and joy, fuelled by an infectious wonder with the world... heck the universe... and everything that lives within it! Open the door, opportunity knocks, it's Rasputin's Lunchbox. NATYS finalist 2017.

ShitStorM

Shitstorm are the premier acoustic heavy metal band in the UK. Mixing a selection of songs, jokes and audience participation they always turn the show up to 11. Whether it is at the Edinburgh Festival, London or above a pub in Thanet, ShitStorM always leave the crowd wanting more.

Matt Hutson

Matt's a dry, sullen singer of tender comedy songs with a deliciously alternative edge who was Runner Up in the Preston Comedian of the Year competition. This is Matt's MCA debut, so to reach the final at the first attempt is a highly impressive feat and demonstrates his promise.

Jamie D'Souza

A relative newbie to the circuit having only started about 18 months ago, Jamie D'Souza has already reached the semi-finals of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards and also the final of the Cavendish Arms Summer competition. His biggest influences are Frank Sidebottom, Flight of the Conchords and David O'Doherty. Armed with a keytar, Jamie's 'childish songs' offer an extremely original style of comedy that is both intelligent and hilarious in good measure.

Tom Taylor

Multi-award winning comedian Tom Taylor has received high praise from audiences and critics alike. His unique brand of musical comedy is smart and silly in equal measure and he can boast an impressive stock of quirky, and very funny, musical one-liners.

In 2013 Tom reached the final of the prestigious So You Think You're Funny? competition, previously won by Dylan Moran, Lee Mack and Peter Kay. In 2014, he reached the final of the Hobgoblin Comedy Award and, the following year, won the inaugural Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year competition.

Recently, Tom has performed on Radio 2 and Radio 4 as part of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award, supported Simon Munnery on tour and performed a sell-out run of his one-man murder mystery, The Game's a Foot, Try the Fish, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

To find out more about the Musical Comedy Awards visit musicalcomedyawards.com