Verity Sharpe & Ellen Turnill Montoya win 2025 Luke Rollason bursary
- The bursary aims to support new comedy creatives with unusual work to stage
- Two winners and two runners-up have been announced, led by Verity Sharpe and Ellen Turnill Montoya
- Rollason jokes: "I have single-handedly saved alternative comedy with this ongoing vanity project/PR exercise"
Recipients have been revealed for the fourth Luke Rollason Memorial Memorial Bursary.
The "inappropriately-named" scheme was founded by Rollason - who is very much still alive and co-stars in upcoming CBBC sketch show Horrible Science - to support new comedy creatives from alternative backgrounds bringing unusual work to the Brighton Fringe.
The winners are:
Verity will perform Landlord's Wet Dream, a comedy punk-poet's rage against the mad machine of the UK housing crisis.
Ellen performs as a giant hand in Mr Handsome, an "absurdly creative art-comedy" set in an illustrated world.
The award is also supporting two runners-up, who are:
Ozzy Algar, presenting Speed Queen, a darkly subversive character folk-comedy; and Sam Hickman, presenting Sexy Rude Harp Concert, described as "camp musical comedy and burlesque from the glamorous harpist and comedy goddess".
The prize for the winners includes the cost of their registration at the festival, venue fees, a photoshoot with Rob Trendy, mentorship from comedy agent Daisy Francis, as well as fizzy drinks and crisps of their choice. The runners-up will also have their registration costs covered and "might get some crisps from the bottom of the bag if they are lucky".
Luke Rollason quips: "As the sun sets on the dying twilight of my career, I desperately reach for some kind of legacy that can be inscribed on my tomb. Thankfully, I have single-handedly saved alternative comedy with this ongoing vanity project/PR exercise. I have done all I can. Farewell."
All four winners will be featured in an industry showcase on the 24th May at Brighton's KOMEDIA Comedy Club, alongside shortlisted acts Anna Soden, Carl Carzana, Haylin Cai and Sophie Walmsley.
This is the award's fourth year. Previous winners include BBC New Comedy Award nominee Su Mi, Funny Women Awards finalist Rachel Baker, and Rosalie Minnitt - creator of sell-out smash hit Clementine.