It’s officially the morning after the 7th Annual ECNY Awards, and even though my head is still is ringing, a huge congratulation is in order to all of last night’s winners and nominees. The 92Y Tribeca was packed to the gills with what seemed like NYC’s entire comedy community; laughing with, celebrating for, and most importantly, drinking alongside their peers.
Comedian Jon Friedman (The Rejection Show) was tapped to host for the fourth time, and played the entire thing with so much charm and charisma that he ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire event. The awards show was very well put together. The Moon provided some clever videos to announce nominees in each category
Interspersed were performances from the Best Musical Comedy Act nominees, which acted as great way to break up the usual award show monotony. Major props should go out to Kambri Crews and company for producing a really well orchestrated ceremony all the while dealing with comedians, which we all know is the equivalent of herding cats that drank a can of Red Bull.
Even though the ECNY awards aren’t the biggest kid on the block (yet) they still managed to bring in their fair share of star power and surprises. Former ECNY lifetime achievement recipient and stand up icon Eddie Brill handed out the first award of the night for Best Variety Show to Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen.
The audience got two of their biggest surprises of the night from a pair of unexpected appearances, first from rock and roll party machine Andrew WK who gave out the award for best Emerging Comedian to Paul W. Downs. The second was the appearance of the show
how stopper himself Reggie Watts, who, along with last years Best Female Stand-up Morgan Murphy, handed out the award for Best Male Stand-up to Kurt Braunohler and managed to steal the show in less time than it took me to finish a beer (which if I hadn’t alluded to, was flowing thanks to Lagunitas).
Braunohler and Kristen Schaal were the nights MVP’s winning solo or shared honors in four separate categories, including best variety show, host, book and male stand-up.
There was a boat load of awards given out so here is the entire list of winners and presenters courtesy of this years Best Comedy Website winner The Comic’s Comic. Congrats guys, you totally deserve it, but we’re gunning for your spot next year!
Best Variety Show Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen
Best Improv Group Death By Roo Roo
Best Website thecomicscomic.com
Best Host Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal
Best Flyer of Postcard Design The Paul Downs Syndrome – Rylan Morrison
Best Sketch Comedy Group Serious Lunch
Best Technician Beowulf Jones
Best Comedy Podcast Risk! True Tales, Boldly Told
Best Book The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex – Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist
Best Comedic Video (Short or Series) “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” – Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp
Best Comedy Event The 12th Annual Del Close Marathon
Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Tweeting @chrisgethard
Best One Person Show “Prison Freaks” – Shannon O’Neill
The Emerging Comic Award Paul W. Downs
Best Storyteller Tom Shillue
Best Musical Comedy Act (Group or Solo) Adira Amram
Best Male Stand-Up Comedian Kurt Braunohler
Best Female Stand-Up Comedian Andrea Rosen
The awards were hosted by Jon Friedman (The Rejection Show), with awards presented by past winners Eddie Brill (Lifetime Achievement), Glennis McMurray (Best Musical, Best Improv), Gabe Liedman and Max Silvestri (Best Host), Paul Briganti & Jared Nuemark of Landline.TV (Best Short Comedic Film), Carol Hartsell (Best Technician), Sara Benincasa (Best Short Comedic Video), Myq Kaplan (Emerging Comic Award), Snakes (Best Comedic Musical Act), Morgan Murphy (Best Female Stand-Up Comedian), and Hannibal Buress (Best Male Stand-Up Comedian). They were joined by Andrew WK, Eliot Glazer, Livia Scott, Chelsea White, The Moon, Mark Normand, David Cope, and Bobby Tisdale.
The musical nominees — Grease 3: Threase, Stuckey & Murray, Ben Lerman, and Adira Amram & The Experience — also delivered live performances throughout the night.
