The line-ups for the two London heats of the Petfringe stand-up competition have been announced.

Petfringe is a new comedy competition which claims to be offering the biggest-ever money prize in UK comedy. The winner of the Petfringe Comedian Of The Year will win £10,001 - a pound more than the winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award, currently sponsored by lastminute.com. There are six heats in total. Click here to see the line-ups of the four heats outside London already announced.

The Petfringe competition is open to anyone of any standard, from open mic acts to Michael McIntyre. Organiser Andy Stedman says: "The prize money is being put up by a generous benefactor linked to Petfringe Festival in Petworth, who wants to help promote their annual event and increase the amount of quality comedy in that area of the country (West Sussex). 

Each act does a tight 10 min set. One act goes through from each heat, plus a best runner-up. The final is at Petfringe on Sun 8 July. Judges for London are led by Mike Gunn, and will include a 'lay' person. Audience reaction does count towards the decision, but clearly judges are experienced to recognise genuine reaction versus rent-a-crowd. The main categories will be writing and delivery and of course that je ne sais quoi which makes some acts stand out from the rest. Decisions will be based purely on the set they perform that evening, and not reputation.

Monday 16 April - Piccadilly Comedy Club 8pm, Tickets £10 here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/475587 

OLGA KOCH

MARK SIMMONS

JOE BOR

RACHEL FAIRBURN

DAVE THOMPSON

RADU ISAAC

MATT STELLINWERF

PRINCE ABDI

SARAH CALLAGHAN