Heidi Regan wins 'So You Think You're Funny?' 2016

Heidi Regan has won So You Think You're Funny? 2016.

The final of this prestigious stand-up competition for new acts was held at the Gilded Balloon tonight as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Regan submitted this biography ahead of the competition: "Heidi is a slightly surreal, quite deadpan, substantially human comedian. She is originally from Australia which is in the southern hemisphere, which itself is one of the two biggest hemispheres in the world!"

Her set for the final included material on her failure to be a good receptionist, which lead to talk about robot receptionists and whether she might herself be a robot.

She was awarded a cash prize of £2,500, and now has the opportunity to perform at Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival and Norway's Bergen Humor Fest, as well as take up a place in Gilded Balloon's 2017 Fringe programme too.

Ruth Hunter, from Ireland, whose deadpan set included her talking about the civil service, death and nutrition, was named runner-up.

Danielle Walker, also from Australia, was named the second runner-up. She talked about her youthful appearance, watching an incestuous Game of Thrones scene whilst sat next to her dad, and other topics in the 7 minutes of stage time the competition allows.

Now in its 29th year, the Edinburgh Fringe-based competition has previously unearthed comedy talent such as Peter Kay, Miles Jupp, David O'Doherty, Tommy Tiernan, Lee Mack, Dylan Moran and Aisling Bea.

This year's show was compered by Zoe Lyons, and the full running order was: Stuart McPherson, Heidi Regan, Arielle Souma, Ruth Hunter, Harriet Braine, Danielle Walker, Sophie Henderson, Jamie M and Kelly Convey.

The judging panel was comprised of Karen Koren (Artistic Director of Gilded Balloon), Katy Koren (Artistic Director of Gilded Balloon), Susan Provan (Director of Melbourne International Comedy Festival), Zoe Rabnett (Senior Producer, Just For Laughs Festival), Bruce Dessau (Comedy Critic, Evening Standard), Helen Hawkins (Culture Editor, Sunday Times), and comedian Alan Davies.