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Edinburgh Comedy Awards judging panel confirmed

By | Published on Wednesday 23 July 2014

Edinburgh Comedy Award

Ah, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, 34 years old this summer. Yep, once again a team of laugh connoisseurs will be roaming the city checking out all the laugh-makers in a bid to identify the very best. And the new best. And the Panel Prize deserving best.

But who are these laugh connoisseurs you all surely ask? Well, this year’s judging panel was announced yesterday, with journalists Mark Monahan, Alex Hardy and Alice Jones of the Telegraph, Times and Independent respectively, telly comedy types Sam Bryant, Liz Lewin and Lindsay Hughes from the BBC, Channel 4 and Baby Cow, and the director of the Leicester Comedy Festival Geoff Rowe. Plus three punters picked from a punter-picking poll, in the form of Kathy Bell, Tim O’Connor and Patrick Nicholls.

Awards overseer Nica Burns is quoted by the British Comedy Guide as saying: “2014 promises to be another wonderful Fringe, with comedy for everyone, whatever your taste and budget. Just as we were saying that comedy at the Fringe couldn’t get any bigger, we have even more shows to judge than last year. Another bumper year with a staggering 642 eligible shows! The free show strand is an amazing 15% bigger with over 823 fringe shows listed in the fringe programme”.

She went on: “Excitingly, the pioneering 2013 double win from the extraordinary talents of Bridget Christie for Best Comedy Show and Adrienne Truscott in the Panel Prize, whose extremely funny shows combined laughter with serious ideas, has inspired a leap in the comedy shows performed by women: up by 70 shows from last year to 183 which is a stonking 62% increase. There’s nothing like a role model, let alone two!”

So that’s all good news. Shortlists for this year’s awards will be published on 20 Aug, with the winners crowned at a lunchtime ceremony on 23 Aug. I wonder if Jim Davison is eligible.



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