Standup about infertility, jokes about a Georgian gourmand, and an experimental clowning fever dream: the shortlist has been announced for the 45th Edinburgh comedy award, and it’s as eclectic as ever. Featuring just the one previous nominee in the best show category (the Yorkshireman Ian Smith), the list highlights eight shows from more than 500 eligible, and includes previous best newcomer nominee Dan Tiernan, one half of the former double-act Norris and Parker, Katie Norris, and a man whose first two fringe shows almost killed him, the teacher turned standup John Tothill.
Also included among the nominations, for an award recognised as the live comedy “Oscars” and with a star-making pedigree, are Ed Night, son of the comedian Kevin Day, with his show Your Old Mucker, and the only American act on the list, sometime SNL writer Sam Jay, with We the People – not the only show suggesting pushback against political correctness from unexpected quarters. From Canada, the “little bit niche and mostly gross” duo Creepy Boys are shortlisted for Slugs, in which they star as gastropods trying not to explore the state of the world. Arguably the favourite, meanwhile – probably the buzziest of the shows selected for the list – is Sam Nicoresti’s Baby Doomer, a high joke-count, leap-into-the-mainstream set about the comic’s gender transition.
Also announced today, the nominees for best newcomer award, a prize secured in the past by acts including Sarah Millican, Tim Minchin and Tom (Ballad of Wallis Island) Basden. On that list are one or two acts who might rightly feel aggrieved to be denied a best show nod, most notably Elouise Eftos with her fantastically sly set Australia’s First Attractive Comedian. Excellent offerings by Ayoade Bamgboye and Toussaint Douglass otherwise lead a field that includes Salford’s Molly McGuinness, Ireland’s Roger O’Sullivan, New York-based clown-comic Kate Owens and the double act (also partners in real life) of Ada and Bron with their sketch show about misbegotten romances, The Origin of Love.
No Edinburgh comedy award shortlist is complete without a grievance about acts unfairly overlooked – and this year’s standout omission is Cat Cohen, a former Edinburgh best newcomer whose musical comedy show about her recent stroke and ongoing self-absorption, Broad Strokes, is clearly one of the exceptional comedy sets on this year’s fringe. No matter: hers is a prodigious talent that will flourish with or without the awards’ further endorsement. I’d expected to see last year’s best newcomer Joe Kent-Walters nominated for his follow-up in character as ghoulish nightclub MC Frankie Monroe (but fair enough – it’s not a big step forward from last year), and reckon deadpan Aussie Dan Rath and mind-bending US sketch outfit Simple Town are unlucky to miss out. It would have been good to see sketch represented on the main shortlist – but perhaps the quartet’s short run disqualified them.
The winners of this year’s awards, who bag £10,000 (for the main prize) and £5,000 (for best newcomer) will be announced at a ceremony this Saturday. Last year’s winner Amy Gledhill will present the trophy; other illustrious recent winners include Starstruck creator and star Rose Matafeo and those twin Netflix phenomena Hannah (Nanette) Gadsby and Richard (Baby Reindeer) Gadd.
Alongside Nicoresti’s show, it’s worth keeping an eye this year on Tothill’s This Must Be Heaven, a frothily entertaining and erudite seminar about 1800s oyster-guzzler Edward Dando, and about Tothill’s brush with death from an exploded appendix on last year’s fringe. And after his nomination in 2023 for Crushing, don’t rule out Goole’s Ian Smith, as good a back-to-basics standup as any on the fringe, returning with more fretful humour on the topic of his low fertility.
The judging panel for this year’s awards – now sponsored by DLT Entertainment and the Taffner Family Charitable Trust – comprises critics, members of the industry and comedy fans, and includes Sam Bryant of podcast service Audible, Josh Buckingham at the TV producer Hat Trick and Guardian comedy reviewer Rachael Healy.