The Musical Comedy Awards Final always throws up an interesting line-up and this year’s final was no exception. After silver-quiffed compere Rob Deering’s high-energy warm-up - I love his acid house-style coffee song but I can’t get it out of my head now – the six acts showed that the definition of what constitutes musical comedy these days is very wide indeed.

First up was Baron Fingolfin (pictured on page 2), an oddball who was unknown to me. At first I had fears that this was going to be a Malcolm Hardee-style quirky act that would not go down well. He was wearing what looked like a red cat suit and a giant bumbag for starters. But after a slightly meandering bit of banter that didn’t reap many laughs he actually turned out to be very good indeed and a lot more accessible than expected.

His highlight was translating Enya, who was, he explained, trapped in his keyboard. I guess you had to be there, but trust me, it was both very funny and very original, and justified his joint third placing.

The strong start was improved upon by the second act called DW (pictured below left), two Oxford students, Will Hislop and Dave Meredith. And yes, Will Hislop is Ian Hislop’s son, but I only discovered that after the judging (I was one of the judges). They sensibly addressed the class issue straight up with an impressive Aga gag before doing their two musical set-pieces. 

The first was a very clever reworking of the theme of obsessiveness in Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head and may have contained the word 'euphonics' – a first for comedy. There was a hint of Flight of the Conchords about the vocal interplay but in a good way. The second song was a mini-musical in German – yes, really – about the slave trade, which was far better than that description suggests. DW – the worst thing about them is their name – came second, not bad for a couple of relative newbies. One way or another I’m sure we will be hearing more from them.

Third up was Gatis Kandis from Latvia, who was certainly interesting if not entirely successful. His deadpan delivery and accent evoked Daniel Simonsen, but the material was more dark and less clownish as he played up his creepiness for comic effect. The musical aspect was minimal, but if you like your comedy on the warped side Kandis may be worth following.

Review continues here.