Mike Baldwin wins 2011 Seattle International Comedy Competition

Thanksgiving weekend traditionally brings the monthlong Seattle International Comedy Competition to a close, and this year’s contest brought victory to Kansas City stand-up Mike Baldwin. Baldwin previously had made it to the finals of the 2007 San Francisco competition.

Baldwin wins $5,000 plus a $1,000 advance toward a recording contract with Uproar Entertainment.

The final results from this weekend:

  1. Mike Baldwin
  2. Rodney Sherwood
  3. Rick Kunkler
  4. Patrick Keane
  5. Mrs. Hughes

Sherwood had emerged out of comedy retirement to compete this month.

Seattle contest talent director Peter Greyy had this to say, meanwhile, about Baldwin’s win: “In what was an extremely competitive field, Mike Baldwin simply went out night after night and delivered top notch comedy.  His style is instantly likable, entirely personal and it highlights his attention to detail.  His material is crisp and perfectly efficient and he supplements that material with subtle but perfect facial expressions and vocal inflections.  His dominance in this competition is best expressed this way:  He won three of the six nights of his preliminary week.  He won five of the six nights of the Semi-Finals (and barely missed winning that sixth Semi-Final show, too.)  He won four of the five nights of the Finals (and the one night that the judges didn’t have him winning, the audience booed the decision and chanted his name.)  And, despite his dominance, the other competitors this year couldn’t even be mad at him…not only because Mike is simply really nice but also because Mike is simply really funny.”

Congrats Mike!

He told the Seattle Times after his big win: “Comedy’s just a long road of small steps up…If you can win San Francisco or Seattle, that’s huge.”

You can watch a quick clip of Baldwin’s stand-up here, in which he describes having fun “playing dumb.” Roll it!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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