New award for comic partnerships

Another comedy award is to be launched at the Edinburgh fringe - but the winners won't be receiving a penny in prize money.

A chocolate company will be presenting the best double act at the festival with a token award in a bid to promote their fair-trade bars.

The winner will receive a chocolate trophy, presented by Mervyn Stutter (pictured) at his Pick Of The Fringe show on August 22.

He said: "It's great working with the fair trade movement - to help those providing us with pleasure earn a fair reward for their efforts."

Judges of the first Dubble Act Award shouldn't have too much difficulty choosing a winner, as only about 15 of the hundreds of comedy shows at this year's festival are double acts.

Stutter explained the lack of comic partnerships, saying: "A good double act is an extremely hard discipline to learn and it's more cost effective to work alone."

The award is aimed at promoting the Dubble bar, backed by Comic Relief and part-owned by a co-operative of 35,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Published: 8 Jul 2003