News: Finalists Announced For Petfringe Comedian Of The Year

The finalists have been announced for the Petfringe Comedian of the Year. This is the new competition with a prize of £10,001 - a pound more than the Edinburgh Comedy Award, so claiming to be the most lucrative prize in British comedy. Though Lost Voice Guy did recently bank £250,000 for winning the multi-genre Britain's Got Talent.

This competition is for acts who are "actually really funny", says the website. not high concept, chin-stroking performances that tend to win the prizes. 

There were 876 applicants and 54 performers took part in six heats around the country. Mike Gunn is head judge, who led judging panels consisting of the local promoter plus a ‘lay’ person (who loves comedy). Criteria was the writing (is it funny, original, and not stolen or hack), the performance/delivery, and the audience reaction. Finally each judge had some marks to allocate for their own personal enjoyment of the set. Acts would do 10 mins each, their slot on the night drawn out of the hat like the FA Cup 3rd round. "This was the FA Cup of Comedy!"

The Grand Final is this Sunday (8 July) in Petworth. The finalists consist of the six heat winners, two ‘best’ runners-up and one wildcard. The wildcard and best runners-up gave the judges the flexibility to ‘even’ things out if one heat was especially strong, or if there were outstanding performances that merited a final spot.

The Petfringe finalists are (in alphabetical order):

Alistair Williams
Charmian Hughes
Karen Bayley
Luke Toulson
Mark Simmons
Nick Page
Simon Lomas
Tim Clark
Tom Glover
MC: Andy Stedman
Judges: Mike Gunn + Team

Other runners-up who didn’t quite make it but were fab were Dave Thompson, Lenny Sherman, Peter Brush and Raymond Mearns. MCs have been Cerys Nelmes, Paul Revill and organiser Andy Stedman.

The same prize money is guaranteed for the next two years to help support working comedians and promote the exciting festival that PetFringe is and wants to be. Andy Stedman points out that he chipped in a £1, making this the biggest prize in comedy.

Book tickets HERE

Tags: 

Articles on beyond the joke contain affiliate ticket links that earn us revenue. BTJ needs your continued support to continue - if you would like to help to keep the site going, please consider donating.

Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.