The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards have just announced the short-lists for all 5 Awards this year. Best Show and Best Newcomer - 25 shows in total - 15 for Best Show and 10 for Best Newcomer, plus Best Tech, Joke of the Fringe and Panel Prize on their website here http://www.edinburghcomedyawards.com/winners. All are in the running for the prizes, sponsored by comedians and the industry. 100% of their sponsorship goes on the prizes to support artists. The shows as per the last two years are judged by around 30 volunteers who were at the Fringe anyway. There were around 700 eligible shows this year (full eligibility criteria and judging process via the website).
The Awards were founded by comedian Nathan Cassidy with head judge and producer Sarah Bowles.
Nathan Cassidy says: 'It's near impossible to make short-lists for these Awards, as in all the categories you're excluding people and shows that are outstanding in their field. What these lists are I think are just a representation of the incredible work that happens at the Edinburgh Fringe, and I'm so proud that we can recognise artists, shows, jokes, techs, flyerers, producers, reviewers etc all in one Awards. At our best, we are a community supporting each other. The ethos of these awards is artists supporting artists. Let's stop exploiting artists' finances and trying to rise through anything but working together, as fairly as possible. We know that the ISH Awards really does make a difference and I've been blown away with all the support this year, and we can make that difference with 100% of sponsorship going to artists. And who knows - the sponsorship announcements may not be over for this year yet... '
There's a showcase of the shortlisted acts at the Counting House tonight 1130pm. It's donations at the end and all donations will go towards the prize fund. The Awards will be announced at the Ceremony late night on Friday 22nd August again at the Counting House.
Here are the short-lists in full...
CASSIDY/BOWLES AWARD FOR BEST SHOW
- Amy Webber: Wannabe - Just The Tonic 17:20
- Danny Ward: The Holiday - PBH Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth 12:00
- Eric Rushton: Innkeeper - Monkey Barrel 15:20
- Gareth Mutch: Maybe Tomorrow - The Stand 18:05
- Garry Starr: Classic Penguins - Underbelly 21:30
- John Tothill: This Must Be Heaven - Pleasance 21:00
- Jordan Brookes: Work in Progress - Pleasance 22:40
- Jordan Gray: Is That a C*ck in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Here to Kill Me? – Assembly 21:05
- Laura Lexx: Slinky – Monkey Barrel 15:50
- Mark Forward Presents Safari Time – Gilded Balloon 20:20
- Olaf Falafel Asks: Orange You Glad? - Free Festival @ Counting House 14:30
- Pear: Phobia – Underbelly 19:20
- Phil Ellis: Soppy Stern - Monkey Barrel 12:45
- Roger O’Sullivan: Fekken – Hoots @ The Apex 12:40
- Sikisa: Serving Justice - Monkey Barrel 17:50
PATRICK MONAHAN AWARD FOR BEST NEWCOMER
- Alex Stringer: Happy Hour - Pleasance 18:00
- Amelia Hamilton: Forget Me Not - Pleasance 21:45
- Ayo Adenekan: Black Mediocrity – Monkey Barrel 13:30
- Ayoade Bamgboye: Swings and Roundabouts - Pleasance 16:45
- Dirty Work – Underbelly 17:25
- Ed Mulvey: Pregnant Gollum – PBH Free Fringe @ Carbon 17:40
- Kit Loyd: Frenzy - Assembly 20:20
- Love Hunt - Just The Tonic 12:10
- Molly McGuinness: Slob - Monkey Barrel 14:55
- Thor Stenhaug: One Night Stand Baby – Pleasance 20:40
TAKEOVER RADIO 106.9FM JOKE OF THE FRINGE
Jokes work better over video - check the winners out on ISH founder Nathan Cassidy's YouTube here (jokes 1-5) and here (jokes 6-10) or on the @edinburghcomedyawards insta reels.
In no particular order... again, the winner is to be announced at the Ceremony on Friday.
- Jo Caulfield 'Last time I got really drunk I woke up in this filthy bedroom, vomit all down me, some fat, naked bloke snoring next to me. I was like - oh right, at least I got home ok.'
- Danny Ward 'A lot of people don't realise that 'Edinburgh Festival' is actually an acronym, and it stands for Expensive Digs Including Nasty Bathrooms Urgently Requiring God's Help... Fricking Extortionate Scottish Trip Invariably Valuing Artists Least.'
- Jamie D'Souza 'I'm mixed race, it's a bit of a weird mix. I'm Swiss Indian, so Swindian - not from Swindon it's not that bad. I thought at school I'll turn it into a positive and give myself a nickname 'Swiss Chocolate'. It didn't catch on they called me the Bounty instead, you know because I was brown on the outside... and nobody liked me.'
- Olaf Falafel - 'Don't fall for the Deep Fry My Money investment scheme - that's how I frittered away my savings.'
- Andrew White 'There is of course a gay feudal system, it goes from Gay Lord all the way down to the Village People.'
- Eric Rushton 'My idea was to join a University society, be around people who had the same passion as me. So I joined the comedy society. I could have hung out with the maths kids, I just thought they weren't socially awkward and neurodivergent enough for me.'
- Sikisa 'A ceiling spider is the worst kind of spider in the world. It's looking at me, I'm looking at it. I'm like 'you know what, you can have the bedroom, I'm gonna go sleep on the sofa.' That was two weeks ago. I feel like sliding a piece of paper under my bedroom door and saying 'hey, can you pay for half the WiFi please?' I mean a spider can afford it, it is a web developer.'
- Alex Bertulis-Fernandes 'I present my naked body like I'm presenting Art Attack. I'm like, here's something I prepared earlier, there was a lot of macaroni involved.'
- Paul Sinha 'I put 20 quid on a horse at 15/1 which was stupid because horses are useless at general knowledge.'
- Jordan Brookes (his pick-up artist joke... the joke is too long to publicise)...
LYONS AWARD FOR TECH
- Mali Werner (5 shows)
- Damian Robertson (4 shows)
- Beth Hamilton (5 shows)
- Jake Wood (6 shows)
- Eddie Fenton-Jones (4 shows)
- Charlie Beveridge (7 shows)
- Alice Rebecca-Greening (5 shows)
- Josie Shipp (5 shows)
- Charlie Miller (3 shows)
- Jak Wooley (7 shows)
- Sam Dodgshon (6 shows)
RHOD GILBERT PANEL PRIZE
Announcing the 5 Nominees for the 2025 ISH Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize this year. We are using these nominations to highlight the incredible support that these individuals and organisations give to artists and others at the Fringe.
Benny Shakes - at Disabled Cants www.disabledcants.co.uk - Benny took this show over from Steve Day in 2023 to give more disabled people a platform to practice their craft. It has a showcase at Bar 50 here in Edinburgh and now they have helped over 200 disabled artists around England to follow their dreams. Benny says 'it's not about me it's about helping the next generation of comedians.'
Che Burnley - Che says 'The Alternative Black Comedy Showcase has been running for 7 years in Edinburgh trying to give a platform and voice to Black (from a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds) comics in Edinburgh. It has featured people like Paul Sinha, Desiree Burch, Langston Kerman and Sikisa. We also runs workshops to try to get black kids into areas where they are not usually represented, not just on stage but behind the scenes in A/V tech backgrounds, writing and specialised acts such as circus skills etc. as in other clubs there is a more cabaret element to the show. Off the back of that is a plan to deliver mental health comedy workshops with a similar aim but for the older black generations who may have been missed out. It's basically about, entertainment, opportunities and care for groups often left out of the discussion or with different needs.'
Five flyerers - we are going to choose five flyerers this year to nominate for the Panel Prize to represent the hundreds of amazing flyerers in Edinburgh working so hard at something that is crucial to support artists and spread the word about their shows. There are some really amazing people doing flyering in Edinburgh, one of which is Louis Mangay, who flyers for several shows, as do most flyerers up here, another is Josh Ferguson, flyering for Daniel Muggleton, Michael Shafar, Cal Halbert and Comedy For The Curious. More great flyerers to be named here soon!
Lula.xyz - Award-winning artist Lula.xyz created Edinburgh Fringe with Spice, a new initiative to champion Global Majority and non-white performers at the Fringe. The project, launched at Edinburgh Fringe 2025, includes a dedicated brochure, an online hub, and free ticket giveaways to reach audiences who might otherwise miss these performances. With nearly 4,000 shows programmed this year, fewer than 10% centre upon artists of colour, according to the Fringe of Colour database. Lula.xyz’s brochure, available online now and in print, makes it easier for festival-goers to discover and support these shows. The full brochure and show listings are available at lula.xyz.
One4Review review team - Geoff and the team of reviewers at One4Review, alongside ISH founder Nathan Cassidy, initiated the exponential increase of the reviewing of Free Shows at the 2025 Fringe, something that in the past has been overlooked by many publications. One reviewer Steve Hutchison has, as of a few days ago, reviewed nearly 100 shows, and over a third were from the Free. And that's just one reviewer. The whole team work as volunteers and give fair and honest assessments of shows, uninfluenced by PR, venue etc, they are just looking to support artists by reviewing shows wherever and whenever they may be - a level playing field, as it should be!
Picture by Steve Best of all the Best Show nominees (minus Gary Starr and John Tothill) in a Sarah Bowles/Nathan Cassidy sandwich.
