£5,000 to be redistributed to working-class comedians

Best In Class, the movement set up to help working-class comedians, is giving away its  Edinburgh Comedy Award prize money.

The £5,000 it received from scooping the panel prize last year will be redistributed as ten £500 grants to help acts play this year’s festival.

Those receiving the money will have to do nothing in return – other than  be performing a full run of shows at the festival – and recipients will be drawn at random from all those who apply.

Best In Class founder Sian Davies, pictired, said: ‘Paying that money forward is exactly what we should be doing. We don’t exist to make a profit, our purpose is to support working-class acts to access the Fringe. We do that by working as a collective and sharing our profits.’

The group is also hoping that additional donors come forward to extend the bursary to support even more acts.

Organisers also say they will take it on trust that applicants for the scheme are genuinely working class. On the application form for the bursaries, it says: ‘We will take applications at face value, nobody is going to come round your house and check how many pairs of trainers you own.

‘But please be aware that this bursary is to support underrepresented performers in an industry that actively discourages their success. If you lie about your background you will be taking the money directly from a genuine working-class act, that will be on you.’

Best In Class was created in 2018 and acts who have benefitted from it inlcude Jordan Gray, Jamie Hutchinson, Lindsey Santoro, Tom Mayhew and Anna Thomas.

• A Best in Class showcase will be held daily during the festival at 8:15pm at The Three Sisters (Tickets).

Published: 13 Apr 2023