Sam Eley is best newcomer for Basil Crumbwick

Harriet Dyer and Paul Foot have been announced as the joint winners of best show at this year’s ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, sharing the £5,000 prize

The best newcomer award went to Sam Eley for his alter-ego Basil Crumbwick, while Matthew Gallagher took best joke for his line: ‘Here’s a fact about the Anne Frank diary - they brought out an audiobook version of it - here’s my review - it was sh*t - she was whispering, I couldn’t hear anything that was going on.

The £5,00 Panel Prize was once again shared between all five nominees – see below.  

Awards founder Nathan Cassidy said: ‘This year’s awards have involved an extraordinary amount of work from our judges, volunteers, sponsors and supporters. We cannot thank them enough for the time, care and passion they have given. 

‘Most importantly, congratulations to all our winners and nominees – an incredible array of artists creating brilliant work in venues of every kind across the Fringe.’

Winners were announced ahead of the main Edinburgh Comedy Awards, expected soon after 11.30am today.

The ISH awards were sponsored by comedians Romesh Ranganathan, James Corden, Rhod Gilbert, Elf Lyons, Mark Silcox and Garry Starr, who personally handed £100 to each shortlisted show. 

He also initiated a Very Very Silly Award to an act that had not been longlisted for the main awards, which went to Conk for Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour. 

There is also an award for best tech, voted for by the public, with the winner yet to be announced, while the joke award is also sponsored by Nottinghamshire's Takeover Radio 106.9.

Panel Prize winners:

• Henry Churney of Laugh For Life Comedy, who has run comedy courses that build confidence and boost wellbeing in vulnerable adults in the North West of England.  He said: ‘It also builds a community [with] many of the participants finding a circle of friends that outlasts the course itself.  Turning their struggles into a comedy set changes the relationship people have with their own story. They become the ones who control their narrative.’ He also brought 13 comedians to the Fringe.
• Jess Brough of The Fringe of Colour Database, which helps audiences find shows by underrepresented artists.  She also runs community events and meet-ups.
• Lee Kyle and Felt Nowt, a North East comedy collective that ran their own venue, The Garrett in The Alchemist on George Street at this year’s Fringe and brought 51 regional comedians to the festival,  ‘giving them a valuable opportunity to perform and reach audiences they might otherwise struggle to access’.
• The Live Comedy Association, which has set up a crowdfunding campaign to support people affected by the collapse  of Big Difference Company, the charity behind Leicester Comedy Festival. It has so far distributed £5,000 to people who went unpaid. The body represents 1,600 people in the industry and works to improve grassroots working conditions.
• Sarah-Louise Young, who has organised meet-ups for solo artists at the Fringe since 2022 to offer peer-to-peer support. And with theatremaker Victoria Melody, she set up the Female & Female Identifying Solo Theatremakers Collective, which has more than 1,000 members globally and offers year-round support for anyone making work alone. They offer a WhatsApp group support during the Fringe.

Published: 29 Aug 2026