Mark Muldoon responds to Christopher Macarthur-Boyd's comments

In an interview for this website yesterday, Christopher MacArthur-Boyd told me: ‘I just think the Edinburgh Comedy Awards are a kind of morally bankrupt enterprise that add nothing to the Fringe.’

It’s an organisation I’d seen him discuss previously, while on stage at last year’s Fringe: ‘They had award nominations in Edinburgh today. The panel's very nice and everything, but Scottish people haven't had a nomination. There's been some Scottish people, but it's always Scottish people who move to London, and I don't think you should have to do that to be an artist. Nobody fucking cares about us, apparently.

I defended the Edinburgh Comedy Awards while we were discussing all this. I’ve been on their judging panel, and was part of their scouting team for many years after that, and - having grown up respecting their work - can honestly say that I had far more admiration for them once I’d fully witnessed how it all works. 

Generally whenever I hear about the inner workings of well-known culture awards, I always seem to end up admiring them significantly less as a result. This wasn’t the case with the ECAs.

You can’t exactly be surprised if some acts feel as though they’ve been unfairly excluded, though. Sketch groups and Scottish comics are just two examples. Whilst we were chatting, Macarthur-Boyd continued to discuss those awards: ‘It just upsets and exhausts absolutely everybody involved in it. I’ve seen nominees and longlisted comedians burst into tears over it. Art isn’t a competition. The prize is that you get to spend your life doing it.’

That seems like good advice for comics to live their life by. The Fringe has no shortage of awards and reviewers knocking around. But should the opinions of judges and journalists shape how you end up feeling about your Fringe run, or your career? 

Macarthur-Boyd, it should be stated, was saying all this after having been told that he’d won the Next Big Thing award, which I set up last year in order to champion the up-and-coming acts most deserving of attention from both the media and the public. He should perhaps be commended for not dancing off down the street singing ‘awards are the most important thing in the world, I’ve won one and you haven’t’, while sticking his thumb to his nose and waggling his fingers.

A good arts award should point a spotlight in the direction of the things that most deserve attention. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ll understand how there’s a huge bottleneck of remarkably talented acts in the UK comedy industry who aren’t getting the career opportunities they deserve. Comedians from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will likely feel more excluded. Perhaps any that didn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge feel they’re at a disadvantage. There’s a few ways to slice and dice all this.

Last year the Next Big Thing award was won by sketch group Tarot. This year it's a Scottish comedian. Both have been quietly acclaimed for years, and you’d understand if they survey their careers to date and somewhat question why they’ve not enjoyed far more commercial success by now. 

So I set up an award to try and help resolve the industry’s bottleneck. Other creative industries do it (BBC Sound Of… poll, BAFTA Rising Star award etc.) but no such thing existed in comedy.

It was also in response to a dire TV landscape for up-and-coming comics, with The Mash Report, Mock the Week and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order all having been cancelled in quick succession, as well as institutions such as Live at the Apollo pulling in far fewer viewers than in its heyday.

To which you’d have to say: what a difference a year makes. Amazon’s Last One Laughing has been a huge hit. Mock the Week is performing strongly in its new digital home, TLC, who have just recommissioned it for a second series. Encouraging signs. Attention will now be focused on next week’s launch of Saturday Night Live UK. 

Some have criticised the on-screen casting for - and I’m absolutely just picking a random example here - only featuring one comic from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. But with an expansive lineup of young comic talent within both its initial cast and writing team, its success could still be a considerable ongoing boost to our native comedy scene. As Richard Osman said on The Rest is Entertainment podcast: ‘This might be the final opportunity for traditional television to dip its hand into its pocket and give a huge amount of money to the next generation of comic talent.’

If you’re reading this and happen to be in charge of casting for any comedy TV shows, you could do a lot worse than look back through the 15 acts that have so far been nominated for the Next Big Thing. The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have also nominated some decent acts in their time. Or just… head out to a Glasgow comedy club one evening?

• Mark Muldoon is the founder of the Next Big Thing award. He writes about comedy for Chortle, British Comedy Guide and Ticketmaster, is a former judge/talent scout of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and is available on Instagram here.

Published: 13 Mar 2026