Malcolm Hardee awards handed out at Edinburgh Fringe

Jerry Sadowitz has been named ‘act most likely to make a million quid’ following his cancellation at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The comic won the Malcolm Hardee award after the second of two nights he was due to play at the Pleasance’s EICC venue was pulled amid complaints of racist and sexist material – and of exposing himself.

Judges said: ‘Ironically, after being cancelled, Sadowitz is seeing a huge increase in ticket sales for the show’s tour and is now adding a date at the 3,600+ seater Hammersmith Apollo in November. The Million Quid is getting closer for the most unlikely of reasons.’

When he was cancelled, the Pleasance issued a contradictory statement saying: ‘[We are] a venue that champions freedom of speech and we do not censor comedians’ material,… [but] the material presented at his first show is not acceptable … this type of material has no place on the festival.’

The awards were handed out Bob Slayer’s BlundaBus venue at 1am today and honour the late comic, agent, manager, club-owner and prankster Malcolm Hardee and his anything-goes, spirit-of-the Fringe anarchy.

The award for comic originality went to The Flop: A Band of Idiots – a three-man musical clown act featuring Dan Lees, Tom Pen and Cammy Sinclair at The Banshee Labyrinth. Mr Chonkers was also nominated in this category.

And the ‘cunning stunt’ award for PR genius went to Fringe veteran Ivor Dembina for his reaction to the Edinburgh bin collection strike, promoting the growing piles of uncollected rubbish as performance art.

 The winners each receive a trophy designed by inventor John Ward and were chosen by a panel comprising Marissa Burgess, Kate Copstick, Bruce Dessau, Jay Richardson, Claire Smith and Ian Wolf.

 The Malcolm Hardee Awards have run since 2005, the year of Malcolm Hardee’s death and are run by the British Comedy Guide.

» John Fleming on organising previous Malcolm Hardee awards

Published: 27 Aug 2022