Back Stage Stand-Up Competition Winner Giulio Gallarotti Preps for London Debut

This past June, Back Stage sponsored the "Young Guns of Comedy" competition as part of the inaugural Stand-Up 360 Comedy Festival. The packed two-night event was held at the Broadway Comedy Club in midtown NYC and featured an impressive lineup of up-and-coming talent which was then narrowed down to eight finalists. The judging panel included late night comic legend and show opener Max Alexander (Steve Allen's is the sole Tonight Show missing from his impressive resume), Valerie Adami, the director of Weist-Barron Studios, Back Stage associate web editor Suzy Evans, and yours truly, representing the Back Stage Casting Department.

It was great night of comedy and truly a treat to see the cream of the crop of a new generation of stand-ups. In the end, my fellow judges and I were unanimous in awarding Giulio Gallarotti first place. As this was a competition all about the next breakout stand-up act, potential was the number one criteria. With a polished and confident delivery, Gallarotti proved himself an equal-opportunity offender who is well on his way to the big time. Check out the clip below for a highlight of one of his earlier sets at the Gotham Comedy Club.

Another factor we took into consideration was that the prize package included a booking at one of London's prestigious Jongleurs Comedy Clubs. We were proud to name Gallarotti our Yank ambassador and expect he'll be a hit with unsuspecting Brits. If you'll be in London this September, keep an eye on the Jongleurs website to see when Gallarotti will be performing. If your Fall itinerary is decidedly less international, check out www.giuliogallarotti.com for local show dates, or head over to his YouTube channel for more clips. We're confident you'll see what we saw in our winner; expect to hear a lot more about this new voice in comedy in the years ahead, if not sooner.

--Jesse Landberg