Hannah Gadsby has taken out the 2017 Barry Award for Best Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Gadsby won with her show Nanette – a self described swan song.
The award was announced during the traditional late-night ceremony at The Festival Club, and saw Gadsby edging out fellow nominees Damien Power, Anne Edmonds, Tom Walker, Richard Gadd and Sammy J. Gadsby had been nominated for the award twice previously.
To win the Barry Award, named for festival founding patron Barry Humphries, a show must be performed at least 10 times throughout the festival, and is judged by a secret panel of media and industry professionals. The award is recognised as one of the highest honours in the comedy world.
If you missed out on seeing Nanette the first time around, an encore show has been announced for Saturday 29th April at The Comedy Theatre, with tickets to go on sale today at 10am.
**24/4 – The first encore show sold out in 20 minutes so Gadsby has added a second and final encore performance for 5pm on Saturday 29th April**
Other awards at the ceremony included the Pinder Prize, named in honour of the festival co-founmder John Pinder, which went to Damien Power’s show Utopia: Now in 3D!, enabling him to take his show to the Edinburgh Fringe. Wil Anderson also won a sixth People’s Choice Award, with his show Critically Wil tying with Denise Scott and Judith Lucy’s The Disappointments in selling the most tickets throughout the festival.
For a full list of award winners visit HERE
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