The nominations for this year's increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Awards have been announced.
The Malcolm Hardee Awards are handed out in memory of British comic, agent, manager, club-owner and anarchic prankster Malcolm Hardee. Initiated in 2015, the year of Malcolm's death, the awards aim to celebrate and promote the spirit of madcap, anything-goes comedy anarchy that he personified.
And the nominations are...
Comic Originality
Charles Quarterman
An Afternoon With Charles Quarterman For One Hour. 2:20pm, Heroes @ The SpiegelYurt
Jimmy Slim and Lewis Blomfield
Scratch and Sniff. 10:30pm, Heroes & Bob's BlundaBus
Joz Norris
Joz Norris Is Dead. Long Live Mr Fruit Salad. 4:40pm, Heroes @ The Hive
Legs
Legs. 9:05pm, Just The Tonic at The Caves
President Obonjo
Goodbye Mr President. 9:05pm, The Voodoo Rooms
Sean Morley
Soon I Will Be Dead and My Bones Will Be Free to Wreak Havoc Upon the Earth Once More. 3:20pm, Heroes @ The Hive
Cunning Stunt
E4 & BBC Studios
For exponentially increasing the knowledge of, and sales for, President Obonjo with their "appalling theft of his character".
Jimmy Slim and Lewis Blomfield: Scratch and Sniff
For creating and distributing flyers which have scratch-off elements on them.
West End Producer
For releasing a poster featuring 5 star reviews appearing to be from well-known critics and producers (M Billington, L Gardner, S Clapp, C Mack, A Webber). However, the reviewers mentioned are actually members of the public he phoned up, who gave permission for their names to be used (e.g. Andy Webber is a man who lives in Bognor Regis).
Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid
In this category, the judges have selected the following comedians for their potential to "survive the vagaries of - and triumph over the good and bad luck inherent in - a comedy career to attain seldom-attained financial success."
Candy Gigi
For having a world class voice that could go global, and showcasing it in a new musical genre.
Catherine Cohen
For her force-of-nature take on millennials and their outwardly perfect, inwardly bleak lives.
President Obonjo
For winning a legal battle over ownership of his character, or getting a TV series of his own.
Sophie Duker
For being a self-aware, increasingly prominent voice of intersectionality as it changes Western culture.
Tom Crosbie
For creating a highly addictive video game, and getting people hooked on it during the introduction to his show.
The results will be announced at a ceremony at The Counting House, on Friday 23rd August, starting at 23:59pm. The show will be hosted by President Obonjo and feature sets from a number of comedy acts. It is free to attend, and everyone is welcome.
Frank and Poppy Hardee say: "One of our dad's greatest qualities was finding and supporting new talent. This award in honour of our father will hopefully help to continue to promote new, exciting and slightly eccentric comedy acts at one of the world's most famous comedy festivals."
This year's judging panel is Marissa Burgess, Kate Copstick, Bruce Dessau, Jay Richardson, Claire Smith and Ian Wolf.
Find out more about the awards and previous winners here: https://www.comedy.co.uk/hardees/
