Record 8 nominees for Edinburgh Comedy Award | And 7 for best newcomer

Record 8 nominees for Edinburgh Comedy Award

And 7 for best newcomer

A record eight shows have been nominated for this year's main Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award – and seven for best newcomer.

Typically the lists have five or six names in, showing the difficulty the jury had in coming to a decision.

The nominations for the best comedy show at the Fringe are:

James Acaster: Represent
Joseph Morpurgo: Soothing Sounds for Baby
Kieran Hodgson: Lance
Nish Kumar: Long Word… Long Word… Blah Blah Blah…I’m So clever
Sam Simmons: Spaghetti for Breakfast
Sarah Kendall: A Day in October
Seymour Mace Niche as F*ck!
Trygve Wakenshaw: Nautilus

It is the fourth successive nomination for Acaster, and the third nomination in five years for Simmons.

The nominations for best newcomer are:

Adam Hess: Salmon
Daphne Do Edinburgh
Larry Dean: Out Now!
Sofie Hagen: Bubblewrap
The Story Beast
Tom Ballard: Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred
Tom Parry: Yellow T-shirt

Awards producer Nica Burns, said: 'This is a record-breaking year with an eight-strong shortlist for Best Comedy Show and a seven strong shortlist for Best Newcomer. The judging debate was the longest in the 35 year history of the comedy awards.

'This demonstrates the vibrancy of the Edinburgh Fringe and extraordinary range of talent on show this year. With 600 shows eligible, the shortlist represents the diversity and breadth of style and genre.

'It’s exciting to welcome both established performers with outstanding new shows and new acts to the best comedy show shortlist and it’s a particularly good year for physical comedy.

'Between them these outstanding performers reach every funny bone. The Best Newcomer shortlist shows that the future of comedy in the UK is in very good hands.'

Lucy Lumsden, chair of the judging panel and head of comedy at Sky said: 'It has been a joy to watch so many incredibly talented performers who encapsulate every genre of comedy from political satire to physical comedy and everything in between.'

The winners will be announced on Saturday at 12.30pm, with the awards handed out by last year's winner John Kearns and cricket ace Freddie Flintoff. The best show wins £10,000, with £5,000 foe best newcomer and the panel prize.

This year's panel is chaired by Sky's head of comedy Lucy Lumsden and comprises BBC radio producer Carl Cooper, journalists Alex Hardy (The Times), Ben Williams (Time Out) and John Nicholson (Mirror Online), Just For Laughs producer Zoe Rabnett, Charlie Perkins who is multi-platform content developer with Blink Industries and public competition winners Dave Deverick, Kate Emmett and Mark Muldoon.

Published: 26 Aug 2015

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