Jordan Brookes wins Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2019
- Best Comedy Show: Jordan Brookes for I've Got Nothing
- Best Newcomer: Catherine Cohen for The Twist...? She's Gorgeous
- Panel Prize: Jessica Brough for the Fringe of Colour scheme
The winners of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2019 have been revealed, sponsored for the first time by UKTV channel Dave.
Jordan Brookes won the prestigious lead award for Best Comedy Show, with I've Got Nothing.
Awards director Nica Burns said: "With a very close list of nominees and a nail biting debate the judging panel chose ]Jordan Brookes as the 2019 winner for his originality, his playfulness with the audience, his timing and his sheer laughter count. Utterly unique, dubbed by some critics as the comic coup of the Fringe, there is literally no one like him."
Catherine Cohen (pictured, below) won the prize for Best Newcomer, exclaiming "Oh my God. I love it. This is so crazy. Thank you so much, I'm really honoured." She has been performing The Twist...? She's Gorgeous.
The Panel Prize was given to Jessica Brough, a young Edinburgh resident who founded Fringe of Colour, offering free tickets to BAME audiences. She delivered an impassioned speech about improving diversity at the Fringe.
The results were announced at a lunchtime ceremony as part of the Festival Fringe, hosted by one of last year's winners, Rose Matafeo, and presented by Stephen Fry, who joked that Dave owes him money for QI repeats.
First held in 1981 and perhaps still best known by the brand name of former sponsor Perrier, this was the 38th annual set of the awards, as founded and organised by theatrical producer Nica Burns.
The panel saw over 750 eligible comedy shows to select the nominees. This year's panel was chaired by Dominic Maxwell (The Times) with the panel consisting of Gerald Casey (Gold), Hannah Duncombe (CPL Productions), Tristram Fane Saunders (The Telegraph), Paul Fleckney (The Guardian), Suzy Grant (BBC Studios), Nosheen Iqbal (The Observer), and public competition winners Angela Jariwala, Gráinne Smyth and Michael Thomson.
The prize money for Best Comedy Show is £10,000, with £5,000 each for Best Newcomer and the Panel Prize winner.
Dominic Maxwell explained of the Panel Prize: "This year's Panel has decided to award the prize to a young Edinburgh resident whose vision and passion lead them to start an initiative at the Fringe in 2018 with no funding and no staff. Despite that they have managed to build on it in 2019 with the help of some of the venues with 19 shows each giving them 25 tickets to give away to the audiences of colour they are developing. We hope that, through the Panel Prize more people will find out about their work and that the £5,000 cash prize means they will have some funding to connect more performers and audiences with each other, expand the scheme and inspire young, diverse people. So, in a year when the two comedy nomination lists are more gender equal and more diverse than ever before, we are delighted to award the Panel Prize to Jessica Brough, founder of Fringe of Colour."
The Best Show nominees were Darren Harriott, The Delightful Sausage, Demi Lardner, Goodbear, Ivo Graham, Jessica Fostekew, Jordan Brookes, London Hughes and Spencer Jones.
The Newcomer nominees were Crybabies, Catherine Cohen, Helen Bauer, Huge Davies, Janine Harouni, Michael Odewale, Nigel Ng and Sophie Duker.