It was with great pleasure that myself and Luke Buckmaster awarded Crikey’s inaugural ‘Best of the Fest’ award for best show in the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival to Lawrence Mooney.

Lawrence Mooney’s show ‘An Indecisive Bag of Donuts‘ has been playing to solid audiences and generating praising reviews since the start of the festival, and his well written, well performed show has had audiences in tears of laughter. Read Luke Buckmaster’s full review here, or better yet, if you haven’t seen the show, then see the show. You still have three nights left of the festival. There’s belly laughs, talking dogs, home shopping and abstract art involved. You won’t regret it.

What’s that, you’ve already seen it? Then see it again.

Thanks goes to Crikey’s First Dog for designing a pretty damn awesome certificate, which couldn’t be more official if it tried. That’s right, we spared no expense with this award. Heck, it even came with a free pasta dinner.

That pretty much wraps up Crikey’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival coverage. Forty reviews (with a couple of stragglers to come), twelve podcasts, and one shout out from the Strewth column in The Australian later (thanks, James!) and we’ve barely scratched the surface of an awesome festival, but have hopefully done it some justice.

To those who contributed reviews: Luke Buckmaster, Vince Chadwick, Siobhan Argent, Meghan Lodwick and Warrick Glynn, thanks for all the hard work and quality writing. To Jason Whittaker, Sophie Black and the rest of the Crikey team, thanks for giving me the chance to start this blog and for being the wind beneath my wings. To the ‘behind the scenes’ publicity heroes, particularly Lucy, Mary and Kelly, thanks for your help and patience. Finally, to the comedians. Thanks for your time, your skill, and making this little project so worth while.

Lastly, this blog will continue. While the Melbourne International Comedy Festival takes the next eleven months or so off, I still hope to bring reviews, interviews and comedy related musings to the Crikey audience on a vaguely regular basis. I’m happy to receive contributions, particularly if there’s any comedians out there looking for a platform, or people in other states looking to review shows.

Comedy is an important part of the Australian culture, and I hope this blog will show it the support it deserves, in some ways – not just during the festival.

Speaking of the festival, there’s three days left. If you want my picks – Justin Hamilton, Andrew McClelland, Lawrence Leung, Charles Barrington, Cal Wilson. They’re just some of the great shows; there’s many more.

So congratulations again, Lawrence. And thanks for reading, everyone!