James Corden donates £10k to the ISH comedy awards

Huge boost for prize fund at the Edinburgh Fringe

James Corden has put up £10,000 prize money for this year’s ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

His contribution means that the best show and best newcomer winners will get £4,000 each with £3,000 for the Panel Prize, £1,000 for best tech and a curiously precise £500.01 for the best joke.

The Gavin & Stacey co-creator said:'I'm honoured to be asked to support the brilliant ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards. It's a privilege for me to be able to be a part of this.'

Comedian Nathan Cassidy, who founded the awards, saidL 'When I met James to talk about the awards he couldn't have been more giving with his time, and I am absolutely thrilled with his incredible generosity here.

‘James loves the art of stand-up comedy and all forms of comedy and I am so grateful to him for backing the ISH Awards in such a major way.

‘This really does shine the light for the future of these awards, artists supporting artists. We all need to help each other when we can and James and the other other backers this year are truly leading the way for others to follow.’

A number of comedians had already backed the awards as title sponsors, and their contributions have boosted the prize fund.

Cassidy and awards producer Sarah Bowles sponsored the main prize. Patrick Monahan backed best newcomer, Rhod Gilbert the £500 panel prize and Elf Lyons the £500 tech prize. Takeover Radio 106.9FM sponsored joke of the Fringe.

The awards were set up in 2022 when it looked as if the original Edinburgh Comedy Awards – which started life as the Perriers – might not take place. In the end, they did go ahead, but ISH, which stands for Insert Sponsor Here, decided to continue anyway.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced late tonight. The nominees are:

BEST SHOW

Amy Webber: Wannabe - Just The Tonic 17:20
Danny Ward: The Holiday - PBH Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth 12:00
Eric Rushton: Innkeeper - Monkey Barrel 15:20
Gareth Mutch: Maybe Tomorrow - The Stand 18:05
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins - Underbelly 21:30
John Tothill: This Must Be Heaven - Pleasance 21:00
Jordan Brookes: Work in Progress - Pleasance 22:40
Jordan Gray: Is That a C*ck in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Here to Kill Me? – Assembly 21:05
Laura Lexx: Slinky – Monkey Barrel 15:50
Mark Forward Presents Safari Time – Gilded Balloon 20:20
Olaf Falafel Asks: Orange You Glad? - Free Festival @ Counting House 14:30
Pear: Phobia – Underbelly 19:20
Phil Ellis: Soppy Stern - Monkey Barrel 12:45
Roger O’Sullivan: Fekken – Hoots @ The Apex 12:40
Sikisa: Serving Justice - Monkey Barrel 17:50

BEST NEWCOMER

Alex Stringer: Happy Hour - Pleasance 18:00
Amelia Hamilton: Forget Me Not - Pleasance 21:45
Ayo Adenekan: Black Mediocrity – Monkey Barrel 13:30
Ayoade Bamgboye: Swings and Roundabouts - Pleasance 16:45
Dirty Work – Underbelly 17:25
Ed Mulvey: Pregnant Gollum – PBH Free Fringe @ Carbon 17:40
Kit Loyd: Frenzy - Assembly 20:20
Love Hunt - Just The Tonic 12:10
Molly McGuinness: Slob - Monkey Barrel 14:55
Thor Stenhaug: One Night Stand Baby – Pleasance 20:40

JOKE OF THE FRINGE

Jo Caulfield 'Last time I got really drunk I woke up in this filthy bedroom, vomit all down me, some fat, naked bloke snoring next to me. I was like - oh right, at least I got home ok.'
Danny Ward 'A lot of people don't realise that 'Edinburgh Festival' is actually an acronym, and it stands for Expensive Digs Including Nasty Bathrooms Urgently Requiring God's Help... Fricking Extortionate Scottish Trip Invariably Valuing Artists Least.'
Jamie D'Souza 'I'm mixed race, it's a bit of a weird mix. I'm Swiss Indian, so Swindian - not from Swindon it's not that bad. I thought at school I'll turn it into a positive and give myself a nickname 'Swiss Chocolate'. It didn't catch on they called me the Bounty instead, you know because I was brown on the outside... and nobody liked me.'
Olaf Falafel - 'Don't fall for the Deep Fry My Money investment scheme - that's how I frittered away my savings.'
Andrew White 'There is of course a gay feudal system, it goes from Gay Lord all the way down to the Village People.'
Eric Rushton 'My idea was to join a University society, be around people who had the same passion as me. So I joined the comedy society. I could have hung out with the maths kids, I just thought they weren't socially awkward and neurodivergent enough for me.'
Sikisa 'A ceiling spider is the worst kind of spider in the world. It's looking at me, I'm looking at it. I'm like 'you know what, you can have the bedroom, I'm gonna go sleep on the sofa.' That was two weeks ago. I feel like sliding a piece of paper under my bedroom door and saying 'hey, can you pay for half the WiFi please?' I mean a spider can afford it, it is a web developer.'
Alex Bertulis-Fernandes 'I present my naked body like I'm presenting Art Attack. I'm like, here's something I prepared earlier, there was a lot of macaroni involved.'
Paul Sinha 'I put 20 quid on a horse at 15/1 which was stupid because horses are useless at general knowledge.'
Jordan Brookes (his pick-up artist joke... the joke is too long to publicise)…

Here are some of the comics telling the gags themselves:

AWARD FOR TECH

Mali Werner (5 shows)
Damian Robertson (4 shows)
Beth Hamilton (5 shows)
Jake Wood (6 shows)
Eddie Fenton-Jones (4 shows)
Charlie Beveridge (7 shows)
Alice Rebecca-Greening (5 shows)
Josie Shipp (5 shows)
Charlie Miller (3 shows)
Jak Wooley (7 shows)
Sam Dodgshon (6 shows)

PANEL PRIZE

Benny Shakes at Disabled Cants. Benny took this show over from Steve Day in 2023 to give more disabled people a platform to practice their craft. It has a showcase at Bar 50 in Edinburgh. Shakes says 'it's not about me it's about helping the next generation of comedians.'
Che Burnley of the Alternative Black Comedy Showcase, which has been running for seven years in Edinburgh. It also We also runs workshops to try to get black kids into areas where they are not usually represented, not just on stage but behind the scenes. He said: ‘Off the back of that is a plan to deliver mental health comedy workshops with a similar aim but for the older black generations who may have been missed out. It's basically about, entertainment, opportunities and care for groups often left out of the discussion or with different needs.'
Five flyerers. The awards will shortlist five flyerers for ‘working so hard at something that is crucial to support artists and spread the word about their shows’. Named so far are Louis Mangay and Josh Ferguson.C
Lula.xyz who created Edinburgh Fringe with Spice, a new initiative to champion Global Majority and non-white performers at the Fringe this year . The project, includes a dedicated brochure, an online hub at lula.xyz, and free ticket giveaways to reach audiences who might otherwise miss these performances.
One4Review review team. For an ‘exponential increase’ in the reviewing of free shows this year, following an initiative ISH founder Nathan Cassidy launched before the Fringe. The citation singled out Steve Hutchison who has reviewed nearly 100 shows, over a third of which were from the free side of the festival.