If you want to get into the Musical Comedy Awards final get a guitar. But if you want to win it do something different. That was the takeaway of another strong final that was dominated by string-pluckers but won by someone who pushed a different set of comedy buttons.

Jonny Bennett was first up and split his stage time between keyboards and stand-up. A song about fancying his girlfriend’s dad was good but better was his twisted song about Nigel Farage, complete with multimedia clips. An easy target but it was funny enough to win Bennett the audience favourite award on the night.

Joe Da Costa was the first of a number of guitarists and the best of the bunch, setting his stall out with a nice rug-pulling gag about musical comedy not being to everyone’s tastes. There was something familiar about his act though and afterwards I realised what it was. He also made the final last year. It was well worth a second crack – the judges gave him the runner-up spot.

Australian Sophie Banister felt like a bit of a throwback with her jaunty songs about Aussies v Londoners. There was almost a music hall feel to her satirical number about how ‘ex-pat’ sounds better than ‘immigrant’ but is essentially the same. 

Ben Coleman was playing a ukelele, although he quipped that “this is a guitar, I’m just enormous.” Like Banister there was also something old school here and not just because of his George Formby spoof, while an Elvis Presley impression straddled the predictable and the just plain weird. 

Before Dru Cripps came on compere Nick Horseman brought three audience members onstage for him to improvise with. In the end Cripps only really had time to interact with one and a half of them, but immediately made an impact with his looping samples and original songs based around their jobs. Cripps’ mix of impro and technology is not entirely original but through a mixture of quick wit and funny bones he was the stand-out act of the night and was crowned 2026 winner (pictured with trophy).

Eoghan Collins is another act who made the final last year and maybe if he hadn’t had to follow Cripps his dark songs, warped sense of humour and sheer force of personality might have fared better. He was unlucky not to get a placing.

After the interval a harp appeared onstage. You certainly don’t get many of them in musical comedy – Sam Hickman deserved a prize for lugging it all the way to London from Cardiff for this “guitar convention”. Hickman’s playful long song was about fame, ambition and what is really important in life and made enough of an impact to earn third place.

Indian comic Aadar Malik had a good comedy selling point, being half Hindu and half Muslim - when he goes on protest marches he ends up throwing rocks at himself. He was certainly not in the (very white) final to tick a diversity box, he was funny and also a very good musician (and, yes, another guitarist) with an ear for a catchy tune and cutting lyric, subjects ranging from road rage to holy animals. On another night he could have got into the top three. Maybe he’ll return next year.

Will and Noah were a high energy vocal duo, kicking off with a song about calming yourself with the mantra “wallet, keys, phone”. Another gag was about a website called Loserhub - like Pornhub but for losers. There was certainly something here, but not quite enough to get them on the medal podium.

Vinny Shiu was supposed to have been a finalist last year but had to pull out due to illness. He turned up with a guitar but for a lot of his set it looked more like a prop to make him eligible for the competition. There was a bit of musical comedy here towards the end, but most of the gags were about having a Chinese background and growing up in Portsmouth. He’s got a very good deadpan style, which should stand him in good stead, the material just needs to be tighter.

Chris Iskander made an instant impact by coming on dressed as a bear and handing an audience member a packet of salmon. His short keyboard-based set was like a pocket rock opera, telling his story, with the obligatory Paddington gag thrown in for good measure.  

Finally Tom Veck came out brandishing another guitar and a punchy personality. His main song was about the joys of rummaging around in what has been thrown away and dumped behind supermarkets and getting a bin rush. It’s not easy going last after 11 other acts, but Veck did well to keep the audience onside. There was certainly nothing rubbish about this year’s final, a night of comedy with a lot of strings attached.