Rhys Nicholson Takes Top Honours At Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Image: Rhys Nicholson
Rhys Nicholson has scored a major triumph at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, nabbing the award for Most Outstanding Show for Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!
Nicholson, who is non-binary, took home the honour on Saturday, at an awards ceremony hosted by Joel Creasey. The RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under judge told the audience, “Everyone deserves an award this year. Not this one. This one is mine.”
“This festival is so important to me. I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager to watch shows,” said Nicholson in their speech. “This community is so important to me. Thank you for this and thank you for being my friends.” Nicholson also thanked their fiancé, saying, “This show is half Kyran Wheatley’s.”
Wheatley, who is the owner of Comedy Republic in Melbourne, said on Instagram, “I directed Rhys’s show again this year. And this one we really worked very hard on…I’m just so incredibly proud of them. Best show. Wow.”
Doing Stand Up Since Age 15
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Nicholson celebrated their win on Instagram saying, “I’m still a bit spooked by it all I think. This year’s festival was really, really hard and we all bloody did it.”
Nicholson, thanked their family for their support. “One thing I forgot to mention in the speech is how lucky I am to have the family I do. I was raised in a loving family who continue to be blindingly supportive. I’ve been doing stand up since I was 15 and at the beginning even though they didn’t quite understand what I was trying to do, there were my parents, driving me to shitty gigs and not questioning the full on stuff I was saying on stage. I highly recommend having parents who have more faith in you than you do of yourself,” said Nicholson in an Instagram post.
“I try my hardest not to take for granted how lucky I am to be in this community and make my living doing a really dumb fucking thing with nice people. Thank you everyone for being nice to me,” Nicholson said.
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Fellow comedians celebrated Nicholson’s win with Rove McManus calling it an “excellent choice.” Dan IIic said it an “amazing triumph,” and Dane Baptiste posted that it was “bout time.”
Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!
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Speaking with Patricia Karvelas on RN Breakfast on Monday morning, Nicholson said putting together the show was a challenge. “I haven’t done it for a long time and the muscle atrophies. Stand up and performing…it’s a muscle that you gotta keep tight and if you don’t do it, it’s terrifying.”
“I’m just proud of it because we worked so hard on it and it paid off I guess,” Nicholson said.
Rhys! Rhys! Rhys! received rave reviews at the Festival, with Time Out hailing Nicholson as one of “Australia’s finest comics” and calling the show “hilarious… the highest number of laughs per minute” at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
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“The expertly delivered rat-a-tat joke rate never falls,” hailed The Age. “How remarkable it is to see someone so entirely in command of their work and style.”
Chortle, in it’s review said, “At just 30 the stage version of Nicholson appears to have complete understanding of who he is. The persona is as distinctive and sharp as his slick tailoring and manicured copper hair – and is the wellspring from which his fast-flowing stream of gags and opinions emerges.” (Nicholson used he/they pronouns).
I have always found it hard to explain how I feel about my gender situation and then about a year ago I saw this tweet and I reckon I come back to it about once a month and anyways here’s a great tweet. https://t.co/36yjpQHnwy
— Rhys Nicholson (@rhysnicholson) May 24, 2021
Other nominees for the Most Outstanding Show included Aaron Chen for If Weren’t Filmed, Nobody Would Believe, Cameron James for “Electric Dreams,” Danielle Walker for Nostalgia, Geraldine Quinn for Broad, Greg Larsen for We All Have Bloody Thoughts and Laura Davis for If This Is It.
Rhys Nicholson is bringing Rhys! Rhys! Rhys! to Perth on May 14, Sydney on May 6 and 21, and Brisbane, May 27 and 28.
