Josh Widdicombe wins FHM Stand-Up Hero 2010
Josh Widdicombe has won FHM's 2010 Stand-Up Hero competition.
This year's contest was filmed at the Riverside Studios for broadcast as a six-part series on ITV4, with Brendon Burns acting as host. 273 comedians applied to enter the competition by submitting their videos online, with 25 shortlisted to take part in the TV heats.
Widdicombe beat Henry Ginsberg, Liam Mullone, Nathan Caton and Andrew Watts to pick up the £10,000 prize. He was picked as the winner by judges Jo Caulfield, Ronni Ancona and John Thomson; who praised him for his "extremely well structured" set, "lovely stage persona" and "really, really good jokes".
26 year-old Widdicombe, who is also a sports writer for The Guardian, took up comedy in 2008. He has quickly made his impact on the comedy circuit, winning the prestigious 'So You Think You're Funny' final at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008 after just a handful of gigs, and earlier this year was named Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year.
The young comic recently supported Kevin Bridges on his autumn tour, and has appeared on programmes including Arthur Smith's Balham Bash and Mark Watson Kick's Off. He is now signed to Off The Kerb, the agency behind big names including Jonathan Ross, Jack Dee, Lee Evans, Alan Carr, Sean Lock, Jo Brand and Michael McIntyre.
Commenting on his win, Josh, who doesn't yet know how he'll spend his money, said: "I am delighted to win FHM Stand Up Hero, this is the best thing to happen to me since I met Nigella Lawson."
Host Brendon Burns added: "Stand-up is hard, really really hard and takes years to perfect, but once in a blue moon you find a freak that just knows how to do it from the offset. Josh Widdicombe is one of these freaks."
Here is Widdicombe performing on this summer's Edinburgh Comedy Fest Live...