Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, which ArtsHub awarded a coveted five stars, describing it as “hilarious, in-your-face and flawless“, has taken out Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s (MICF) highest honour.
On Saturday (19 April), Starr’s one-man clown show (created and performed by Damien Warren-Smith), received MICF’s 2025 Most Outstanding Show award.
Other MICF award-winners included Jessica Barton, who received the Best Newcomer Award for her solo debut, Dirty Work, which combined song, dance and clowning, and Urzila Carlson, who won the People’s Choice Award for the most popular show of the Festival (as determined by ticket sales) for You Don’t Say, which filled up the 2896-seater Palais Theatre for an impressive 10 nights.
Accepting his Most Outstanding Show award, Damien Warren-Smith began by saying a “massive thank you to Laura Milke-Garner, my producer. She saw my first ever show in Adelaide back in, like, 2018, and she said, ‘We should work together’ and, yeah, we haven’t stopped since. So a huge thank you.”
Read: Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2025 award nominees announced
Warren-Smith continued, “It’s so weird. ‘Most Outstanding Show’ doesn’t mean it was the best, it means it stood out the most, I guess because I didn’t wear pants… I think on an international stage, I don’t feel like it stands out as much.
“So I guess my hope for the future, particularly with Jess winning Best Newcomer, is that more effort will be made to bring clowns here from internationally. People want it, they’re really f***ing [good], so more freaks, more weirdos, more silly-billys – and maybe a separate Gala, but which is definitely not televised – because we don’t use a microphone. So, thank you so much,” he concluded.
ArtsHub’s collected coverage of MICF 2025, including reviews and features, can be read here.
The Directors’ Choice Award, awarded by MICF Director Susan Provan in consultation with festival programming colleagues to a show they think deserves celebration, was awarded jointly to Dan Rath and Noah Szto.
The Pinder Prize, honouring Festival co-founder John Pinder and awarded in collaboration with Assembly Edinburgh, was presented to Scout Boxall, who will travel to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with their show, God’s Favourite.
The Golden Gibbo – in memory of the late, great Lynda Gibson – is awarded annually to a local, independent show that pursues the artists’ idea more than it pursues commercial gain. This year, the Gibbo went to Kate Dolan for The Critic, in which Dolan gives voice to her not-so-secret inner critic.
By midnight Sunday 20 April, when MICF wraps up its 26-day run, a total of 7718 performances – an additional 341 shows were added due to demand – will have taken place in 184 venues across Melbourne.
Visit Melbourne International Comedy Festival for details.
