Dane Buckley crowned Manchester's Beat The Frog winner

Dane Buckley scooped the top prize at the Beat The Frog ‘World Series’ final in Manchester last night.

The comic has been performing for a year and describes himself  as the world’s only left-handed, Irish, Indian, gay comedian who grew up on a council estate in Harrow.

Runner-up for the audience-voted title was Amy Webber, a keyboard-playing comedian trained in musical theatre and opera.

And the panel prize, chosen by industry insiders, went to Richard Spalding, who describes himself as ‘a polite man with glasses from the Midlands… unremarkable in just about every conceivable way’.

The World Series is the culmination of the Frog & Bucket comedy club’s weekly new act challenge, now in its 19th year.

At the Monday-night gig the audience are given the choice whether the acts stay on stage to deliver their full five minutes of material or are ‘croaked’ off before their time.  A winner is chosen by audience applause, who then goes on to the heats leading up to the final – which does not feature the gong-show element.

Winners of the World Series over the years have included Sam Gore, Brennan Reece who and Carl Hutchinson.

Buckley is pictured above with the club’s managing director Jessica Toomey and Danny McLoughlin, who hosted the final.

The other finalists were:

James Ellis: A veteran of the comedy final, who comes from Crawley and who worries about his weight.

Katie Gill-Williams: With tales from her journey from her upbringing Widnes to living the dream on the north Wales coast.

Bennet Kavanagh: Comedian, writer and musician.

Molly McGuinness: Sharply sardonic Manchester stand-up and previous BBC New Comedy Award finalist.

Sergi Polo: All the way from Barcelona and ‘as far away from his family as he can get’.

Faizan Shah: A Manchester local with a cerebral take on the world and of growing up in an immigrant household.

Norwegian clown Viggo Venn also made it through to the final but was unable to make the gig because of chaos on the trains.

The judges who awarded the panel prize were promoters Rob Riley and Ryan Gleeson, Chortle editor Steve Bennett and journalist and publicist Marissa Burgess.

Published: 8 Nov 2022