And your vote could put one more through

The finalists in this year’s Chortle Student Comedy Award have been announced – all except for the last vacant spot, which is down to a public vote.

Following semi-finals in London and Manchester this week, judges put the following acts through to the final at the Edinburgh Fringe:

• Matthew Winning: A 24-year-old University of Strathclyde economics PhD student who boasts ‘more jokes about Robert Mugabe than the average comedian’.
• Matt Rees: A 19-year-old Glamorgan psychology undergraduate, very new to stand-up.
• Ed Patrick: A 27-year-old medical student at Aberdeen university, returning to comedy after making the 2007 final of these awards.
• Emerald Paston: A 19-year-old Cambridge philosophy student with a guitar-based act.
• Nicholas Cooke: A 22-year-old University of East London film and video student ‘telling stories of my misadventures as a self-hating student living in a house of boxed wine drinking 'cool' people who have parties I am not invited to.’
• Max Dickins: A 21-year-old studying philosophy and politics at Leeds who also made the finals of last year’s competition.
• Ian Smith: Our third returning finalist, a 20-year-old media and communications student at Goldsmiths University Of London
• Phil Wang: A 19-year-old Cambridge engineering undergraduate who mixes deadpan one-liners with ukulele playing.

Watch the successful London semi-finalists:

And the Manchester ones:

Now, click here to view the other semi-finalists and cast your vote of who makes it to the final at the Edinburgh Fringe, exact venue and date details to be announced.

Published: 24 Mar 2010