AudioGO reveals stand-up competition winners

Becky Brunning, Adam Skuse and Tony Cowards have emerged as the top talents in the AudioGO 'Stand Up and Get Heard' competition.

Brunning, from Bristol; Cowards, from Swindon; and West Devon-based Skuse impressed the judges with short extracts from their stand-up sets which ranged in subject matter "from the scatty to scatological."

The audiobook publisher launched the free-to-enter competition in July, with entrants asked to upload a short mp3 of their set to the company's Facebook page.

As the overall winner, 32-year-old Brunning received an all-expenses-paid trip to the Edinburgh Fringe. Additionally, all three winners have been invited to visit the AudioGO studios in Bath, where they will follow in the footsteps of comedians such as Tim Vine, Al Murray and Lee Mack by having their sets professionally recorded.

Becky Brunning, who works in the publishing industry, has only being doing stand-up for 12 months. However, her "quirky, rambling style" has already found success, not only through the AudioGO competition but also in the national Funny Women contest, where she has reached the finals.

Speaking about her win, she said: "I've been doing stand-up for about a year. There have been a few other valiant attempts over the years, but I let the fear seep back every time. The key is not to stop, just keep going - like a shark. It suddenly seems to be picking up a bit. I feel like a bit of a fluke and hope I don't get found out. Getting into the finals of Funny Women is pretty awesome and winning the AudioGO 'Stand Up and Get Heard' competition is lovely too. I'm looking forward to the studio session."

Runner-up Adam Skuse, a 33-year-old freelance editor who has only being doing stand-up since January this year, said: "The routine I entered to the AudioGO competition had been getting good feedback, and I had a recording of it from a recent show so I sent it in, but I really did not expect to win. Being a runner-up in the 'Stand Up and Get Heard' competition has been a really good confidence booster, and has given me an extra push to put more effort in to developing a solid routine."

Fellow runner-up Tony Cowards, a 40-year-old one-liner specialist who has been performing regularly since 2008, says he entered the competition to "test the quality" of his stand-up material.

He added: "I entered the competition because I was interested in recording some of my material to see if it could be funny without a live audience. As a big fan of AudioGO's BBC comedy releases I'm delighted to be a winner in the 'Stand Up and Get Heard' competition and can't wait to do the recording at their studios."

A spokesperson for AudioGO said: "It was a tough decision as we had a wonderful response, but Becky, Tony and Adam's talent stood out from the crowd. They each have their own individual comedy styles, but all share that rare gift for making people laugh.

"We are delighted to offer these budding comics an opportunity to record their material in our studios and hope this serves as a stepping stone to greater things in the future. Who knows, they might be back soon recording comedy audiobooks as household names."

The winning routines have also been praised by Nick Steel, director of the annual Bath Comedy Festival. He said: "I was very impressed with the quality of the winning entries. Tony's deadpan delivery of somewhat sad one-liners expertly mixes humour and pathos; Adam shows no fear as he systematically empties the taboo cupboard; and Becky has a fine line in sharp, sardonic observations on Britishness."

Hear the winning entries

Becky Brunning:

Tony Cowards:

Adam Skuse:
Contains adult themes some may find offensive