Queuing in front of the Leicester Square Theatre, I felt a little out of place. As screeches and whoops of excitement emanated from the throng of multi-coloured tights, fake leopardskin and trilbies you could be forgiven for feeling like a supply teacher on a school outing.

The hordes of teens were there to support their schoolmates at the inaugural MySpace Trident Comedy Awards and up for grabs that afternoon was an impressive leg-up of £250,000 to make a show for MySpace with input from Steve Coogan's production company, Baby Cow, and the chance to catch the eye of a broadcaster.

Five acts each had six minutes to win over their audience (both in the venue and those watching live in webland) and the panel of judges.

Rhod Gilbert is always a sure bet to have the crowd in stitches, and as host he was the perfect warm-up for an awkwardly timed mid-afternoon show.

With the surprising skill of a teacher, albeit a particularly crude one – “We’ll soon be going out live to millions of people, so no fucking about!” - Rhod simultaneously tamed and won over the unruly and excitable audience.

The penis jokes resulted in embarrassed shuffles, blushing faces and sniggers in equal measure among the audience with an average age of 16.

The first act, Mould and Arrowsmith, gave a professional and playful performance, consisting of a string of well-crafted and thoughtful sketches which definitely had TV potential. Although the Bananaman sketch was lost on much of the audience, the likeable duo ended well with an amusing and silly Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? send-up.

Next up, We Are Ace received a cool response to their CSI:Wigan video, where they combined the tried and tested take-the-piss-out-of-the-fat-stupid-Northeners with the old lazy-incompetent-policemen-who-eat-pizza-all-day routine.

It was as though a group of students, on an all-day bender, had decided that it would be funny if they made their own version of The Bill, but with fart jokes. It was a long six minutes.

Mark and Albion from Knock2Bag were a bigger hit with the judges, gaining plenty of laughs with their spoof news show, which, while not being a particularly original format, contained some very original and, at times, surreal ideas.

They were undoubtedly the most professional act of the night and we will surely be seeing more from these guys in the future.

Next on was the act everyone had been waiting for. Ashton and George, two 15-year old boys who make their own show in their bedrooms and broadcast it on YouTube, appeared to a Beatles-esque wave of hysteria.

They began with George pointing out ‘a girl from my last school’, while Ashton, armed only with his toothbrush and an evil grin, threatened to brush everyone’s teeth. What followed was literally schoolboy humour.

In a classroom setting this would have been pretty funny stuff, but did not translate well onto the stage.

However, a short MySpace vs. Facebook sketch akin to Mitchell and Webb’s PC vs. Mac, showed a glimpse of the double act’s future potential.

A familiar face on the stand-up circuit, Patrick Monahan managed to keep the audience’s attention with his chav-bashing routine. His digs at people who shop at Lidl, and large families with kids from several fathers who can’t afford Christmas decorations seemed rather cheap, but his energetic and engaging personality as well as some well chosen school anecdotes got him through comfortably.

The wait for the results of the vote was anything but tense as it was obvious to all that with a teen-to-adult ratio of 10 to 1 in the theatre and the overwhelming support of the two on MySpace, the winners would be Ashton and George.

The Ashton and George have a long way to go before they reach the creative heights of the Adam and Joe Show, which similarly originated from a couple of schoolboys making funny videos to show their friends. But, due to the wide reaches of the internet and the trend for social networking sites, the boys’ fanbase is already impressive and will no doubt continue to grow.

The question is whether their puerile brand of comedy will progress beyond the web and onto our TV sets or onto the stage, or whether they’ll remain the popular choice for those who aren’t yet old enough to drink, which is exactly the audience in which MySpace is interested.

Ashton and George may not be the future of comedy, but they certainly are the comic stars of the web.

Gemma Griffiths

Read more about the myspace comedy awards here:

aa

aa

aa

aa

aa

aa