Message from Tom Basden on tombasden.co.uk

BLOOMSBURY THEATRE GIG

Hi everyone,

Happy 2020. I know it’s not been a terrific decade so far, but bear with it.

For one thing, I’m headlining the Musical Comedy Awards at (London’s) Bloomsbury Theatre on April 4th, which I think we can all agree is exactly the tonic we need after Brexit and the sham Trump impeachment trial.

All the details are here: https://tickets.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsburytheatre/website/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=171056&resize=true

Also, if you enter the promo code TOM2020 when buying tickets you get money off.

Because it’s a musical-comedy-themed evening, it’ll just be songs. So if you came to my show at the Soho Theatre last month and were all like ‘Why were there only 3 songs in it, I want my money back etc etc’ – this gig will be way more up your street.

Equally, if you’re one of those people who sometimes comes to a gig wanting to hear old songs I don’t really play anymore, I will almost certainly do them all here / take requests, provided a) I can remember them and b) it’s one of my songs and not, for example, I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas.

[Here’s a photo of me a fair while ago, wearing a t-shirt I no longer own, playing a guitar I subsequently sold to give you an idea of the sort of thing it’ll look like. [But I’ll be older. And probably in a shirt.]]

Tom

Earlybird tickets for the MCA final are now on sale! The last few seats in rows A, B and C of the Bloomsbury theatre are available here:

https://www.wegottickets.com/sct/jyWDnV9Jmx

The Bloomsbury theatre also has a limited supply of £15 tickets. When booking online via the theatre website, at the last stage of the checkout apply the code TOM2020 and your tickets will only cost £15. Tickets are already selling fast for the final so grab yours while you can! Here is some info about the show:

Who will win the 12th WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards? Join us for a riotous celebration of the UK’s best up and coming musical comedians to find out!

Since 2009, the MCA have helped to launch the likes of Abandoman, Rachel Parris, Mae Martin, Jay Foreman and Frisky and Mannish. If you enjoy acts that combine comedy with music such as Bill Bailey, Tim Minchin and Flight of the Conchords, you will love this show!

The final of the 2020 MCA will see ten finalists who have progressed through a series of heats at the Phoenix in London, battle it out at the Bloomsbury Theatre on April 4th, to win the musical comedy crown of this prestigious competition. A sell-out event every year since 2009.

Featuring a headline performance from Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer Winner and star of After Life, Plebs and Quacks, Tom Basden.

Hosted by MCA resident host, the brilliant Nick Horseman!

Dear All,

We are thrilled to announce the results for the 44 acts that we are inviting to take part in the 2020 WeGotTickets MCA!

Thank you so much to all those who have entered! If you are not through, we are sorry that we couldn’t offer you a place this year and would like to offer you 2 free tickets to an MCA first round heat of your choice (Jan 11th/18th/25th/Feb 1st). Email Ed at ed@musicalcomedy.co.uk and I can sort out a pair of tickets for you.

We are thrilled to see some familiar faces returning to the fold but also a large number of acts that we have never had the pleasure of hosting before. To those of you who are through, we will be contacting you via email in the next few days to organise heat allocation – please try if you can to be flexible as managing the diaries of 48 acts can be a big challenge!

For friends and fans keen to cheer on and vote for their act in the heats, the exact dates and allocation should be ready before Christmas if we are fast/end of December at the latest, but we would also recommend getting a cheap £15 Phoenix Pass with all 8 shos for just £15. Here is a link to those: https://www.wegottickets.com/sct/ZJMMU339KS

Through to the heats of the 2020 WeGotTickets MCA are the following acts (in no order and apologies if we need to edit to include your correct stage name):

2 Mouthed Men
Joe Venable
Alex MacKeith
Chris Rio
Cameron Blair
Thalia Leon
Chris Taverner
The Dementos
Christy Coysh
Shelf Comedy
Tom Taylor
Grant Buse
Chris Sav
Amy Webber
Ed MacArthur
Matt Winterbotham
Matt Blair
Performing Animals
Stepdads
Abigail Carter-Simpson
Tom Keenan
Madame Chandelier’s Rough Guide to the Opera
Best Friends Cabaret
Sheep & Mash
Brice Ledingham
Edy Hurst
Jennifer Tyler
Cats in Athens
Tiana Leigh
Emily Cairns
Captain Breadbeard
Richard Lindesay
Mandy Meadows

Chris Read

Bennet Kavanagh

Georgea Blakey
Jen Smith
Canadians in Space
Jamie Finn
Megan Blair
Victoria Howden
Joel Sales
Frankie Thompson

Bring on the 2020 MCAs!

Ed, Tamara, Dave and Charlie Xxx

Secret Phoenix Passes are now on sale here:  http://www.wegottickets.com/sct/ZJMMU339KS

Don’t miss a moment of the 2020 WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards, live at the Phoenix! Instead of booking individual tickets for £8 each (in total £64), save £49 and buy a Phoenix Pass for £15!!!

Now in its 12th year, the WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards is an annual competition to support, promote, expose and celebrate the best emerging musical comedians in the UK. If you are a fan of musical comedy acts such as Tim Minchin, Flight of the Conchords and Bill Bailey, you’ll love this show!

Over the years, the MCAs have provided a launch pad to superstar acts like Frisky and Mannish (2009 Finalists), Abandoman (2010 winners) and Rachel Parris (Runner Up 2012 and Breakthrough Talent of the Year at Edinburgh TV Festival) and created a thriving independent platform to celebrate the artform that is musical comedy. Other acts that have featured as headliners in our shows include DAVID O’ DOHERTY, BO BURNHAM, RUBBERBANDITS, MITCH BENN, JAY FOREMAN, PIPPA EVANS, TOM BASDEN, ISY SUTTIE, GINGER & BLACK, EARL OKIN, WILSON DIXON, JO NEARY, MR B THE GENTLEMAN RHYMER, SARAH-LOUISE YOUNG, ADAMS & REA and many more.

So the twelfth MCA begins! The top 40 musical comedy acts will be selected from online entries to the Musical Comedy Awards facebook page and will then battle it out in the heats at the Phoenix through to the Final at the Bloomsbury on April 4th. Come along for amazing Saturday afternoons of musical comedy entertainment and vote for your favourite acts to progress through to the next round!

Headliners include:

Jan 11th – Katie Pritchard
Jan 18th – Sarah-Louise Young
Jan 25th – Huge Davies
Feb 1st – Jay Foreman
Feb 22nd – Mitch Ben
Feb 29th – Tina T’urner Tea Lady
March 14th – Tony Law
March 21st – Spencer Jones

Charlie Partridge

Joe Jacobs

Stepdads

Jamie Finn

Photos copyright Elina Kansikas.

We are excited to be returning for our 11th Edinburgh Fringe show this summer! Our show ‘Best of MCA’ will be taking place on Aug 24-25 at the Underbelly’s Belly Dancer on Cowgate from 22.10. Here is some info about the show!

Join us for a riotous celebration of the Fringe’s best musical comedians! Since 2009, the MCAs have helped to launch the likes of Abandoman, Rachel Parris, Mae Martin, Jay Foreman and Frisky & Mannish. If you enjoy acts that combine comedy with music such as Bill Bailey, Tim Minchin and Flight of the Conchords, you will love this show. Sell-out shows from 2009-19.

‘As the Musical Comedy Awards demonstrate, the genre is currently bursting with talent’ – Time Out

Line-ups so far!

Saturday 24th

Phil Nichol (headliner)

Micky P Kerr

Harriet Braine

Stepdads

Jamie Finn

Hadfield & Swan

Sunday 25th

Stiff & Kitsch (headliner)

Joe Jacobs

Huge Davies

Charlie Partridge

Nick Horseman

Jamie Finn

Hadfield & Swan

More acts to be announced soon! Earlybird tickets available via www.wegottickets.com/musicalcomedyawards

We are thrilled to announce that this year’s final was filmed by Flicker TV productions, who chose to focus on the MCA final for an episode in their series ‘One Day That Changed My Life’. Now in its second series, the show follows people at pivotal moments of their life and accompanies them on the emotional rollercoaster as they experience these potentially life-changing events. We are honoured that Flicker TV chose to follow the MCA final for this show! They chose the brilliant Jamie Finn and on Friday 28th June at 11am on BBC1 the show will be going out on air. Tune in and watch Jamie and some of our other finalists perform at the final! The show will be available on I-Player too!

Jamie will be performing at both of our Ed Fringe shows on Aug 24th and 25th! The show is titled ‘Best of MCA’ and will feature a selection of the very best acts to have graced the MCA stage! Tickets are selling fast here:

http://www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/whats-on/best-of-musical-comedy-awards

What a final!!! Audience Favourite and also 3rd place was Maris Piper, in 2nd was Stepdads with Luke Rollason Is A Clown and Tom Curzon and the winner of the 2019 WeGotTickets MCA is Katie Pritchard – thanks and congrats to all of our acts, you were all absolutely outstanding! Another amazing MCA comes to a close! Photos coming soon! We were 4 tickets off from a sell out! Xx

We are delighted to announce our industry judges for the 2019 WeGotTickets MCA final:

• Bruce Dessau – Comedy Critic at Evening Standard, Editor of beyondthejoke.co.uk
• Mark Boosey – Editor of British Comedy Guide
• Claire Cruickshank – Agent for Dawn Sedgwick Management (agent for Abandoman and Rob Madin of Brett Domino)
• Lynne Parker – CEO of Funny Women
• Rupert Dannreuther – Editor of To Do List
• David Hardcastle – Head of Development at Leicester Square Theatre
• Paul Weedon – Agent at Red 24 Management

Tickets selling fast at http://www.thebloomsbury.com/event/run/18020

Who will win the 11th WeGotTickets Musical Comedy Awards? Join us for a riotous celebration of the UK’s best up and coming musical comedians to find out!

Since 2009, the MCA have helped to launch the likes of Abandoman, Rachel Parris, Mae Martin, Jay Foreman and Frisky and Mannish. If you enjoy acts that combine comedy with music such as Bill Bailey, Tim Minchin and Flight of the Conchords, you will love this show!

The final of the 2019 MCA will see eleven finalists who have progressed through a series of heats at the Phoenix in London, battle it out at the Bloomsbury Theatre on April 13th, to win the musical comedy crown of this prestigious competition.

All eleven finalists are now confirmed:

Paul ‘Silky’ White:

‘massively engaging guitar-playing stand-up whose instinctive rapport with audiences makes him welcome wherever he goes.’ – Guardian Guide (Pick of the Week)

The Dragprov Revue:

★★★★★ – ‘I do not have enough superlatives to describe how incredible this inimitable act is… Filled me with so much joy.’ – The Pink Times

Katie Pritchard:

WINNER 2Northdown New Act of the Year 2019

★★★★ ‘Sometimes surreal, often unusually perceptive, and always original and entertaining’ – Female Arts Magazine

‘Inventive and hilarious’ – Broadway Baby

Jamie Finn:

‘Expert sense of timing with a controlled and confident delivery that had the audience in stitches. Hugely entertaining!’

– Ed Chappel, Founder of the MCA

Huge Davies:

‘Jet black, funny and unsettling’ – Chortle

‘Clearly an act that will be going places’ – Bruce Dessau

Louis Burgess:

High energy musical comedian. Selection of choice song parodies mixed with innovative sample-based set implementing sound bites, raps, beatboxing, live voice-over and more. Online viral star with over 50 Million views worldwide. Seen & heard on Radio 4, ITV, UNILAD, Metro, Viralthread, LOADED and more.

Matt Hutson:

Matt Hutson is a delicate flower in a harsh world. When he feels, he feels, he really feels. Armed only with his guitar and a few poorly conceived coping strategies, Matt desperately tries to keep his shit together.

It’s proper songwriting, not a cheap lyric swap.’ – Chortle.

Joe Jacobs:

His live shows effortlessly flit between hip hop and comedy and he’s been seen/heard on Channel 4, BBC Radio 4, BBC 6 Music, Radio 1XTRA, plus gained millions of viral video views online.

‘Comedy Gold’ Broadway Baby ★★★★

Maris Piper:

“Brilliant mash-ups with great vocals – held the room in the palm of their hand.” Ed Chappel, MCA founder

Charlie Partridge:

“Utterly bonkers musical and character comedy from hilarious German electro-rap superstar. Very original and very funny!” – Ed Chappel, MCA founder

Stepdads:

Stepdads are a funk-comedy duo who wish they were your real dad (but who are glad he went to prison). A fever dream of a double act filled with surreal songs, stupidity and the sanctity of marriage. Guaranteed to erase your memories of childhood and replace them with better ones. Leicester Square Sketch Off Runners Up 2019

There will also be a performance from our 2019 Best Newcomers, Hadfield and Swan!

Featuring a special headline set from the Brett Domino Trio

‘This YouTubing Leeds duo perform wonderfully inventive covers of pop songs, largely using the world’s most underrated instrument: the keytar. Well worth catching.’ Time Out

Hosted by MCA legend Nick Horseman

(Press for H&L)

An excellent hour of comedy” **** (British Comedy Guide)

“Very funny” **** (ThreeWeeks)

As the Musical Comedy Awards demonstrate, the genre is currently bursting with talent.’ Time Out