Sydney Comedy Festival Reveals 2023 Award Recipients

On Sunday 21 May, Sydney’s biggest annual comedy event, the Sydney Comedy Festival, drew to a close with the announcement of its 2023 award winners: Hot Department, Guy Montgomery and He Huang. 

The Festival’s prestigious Director’s Choice award went to Hot Department for their show Wet Heat, which saw sketch comedy duo Honor Wolff and Patrick Durnan Silva bring a force of energy, quick-witted crowd work, and thought-provoking humour to the stage, where no two shows are the same, and no one is safe. 

This year, the Best of the Fest Award went to Guy Montgomery. Montgomery presented two shows at this year’s Festival: Guy Montgomery: My Brain is Blowing Me Crazy and Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee. Guy Montgomery: My Brain is Blowing Me Crazy followed his personal experiences  and musings as a 34-year-old step-dad, while Guy Mont-Spelling Bee is an epic spelling competition hosted by Montgomery, both structured and improvised, and this year starred comedic guests Becky Lucas, Cameron James, Danielle Walker and Josh Pugh as they battled it out for the top prize. 

The Best Newcomer Award, presented to an act entering the Festival for the first time, went to the fierce and hilarious He Huang, who’s raw and honest debut solo show Bad Bitch draws on her experiences as a Chinese international student, living as a non-native English speaker coping with linguistic and cultural differences, family drama, and sexual liberation.

This year’s Sydney Comedy Festival delivered more than 265 shows across four weeks at venues all across the city.

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