Winners Announced For The 2019 Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards

Jordan Brookes has been announced as the winner of Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Show and Catherine Cohen is Best Newcomer.

Jessica Brough and their initiative Fringe of Colour has been awarded the Panel Prize which works to make the festival more accessible to performers and audiences of colour.

The winners were announced at a lunchtime ceremony on Saturday 24th August at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. The presenters this year were 2018 Best Comedy Show winner Rose Matafeo and 1981 winner Stephen Fry, who won in the inaugural year as part of Cambridge Footlights. The assembled crowd sang Happy Birthday to Stephen as he was presented with a giant cake. Stephen Fry said: "When I first came here in 1979 I was overwhelmed by the Fringe. I was in three plays that year and the next year I wrote a play to bring to the Fringe and did six shows a day.The third year I came with the Cambridge Footlights, with Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, won the first ever Perrier Award in 1981. The Fringe means everything to me. I wouldn't be here without it".

Nica Burns, Director of Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, says of the 2019 nominees: "An extraordinary, record- breaking year with an almost 45/50% gender balance between female and male nominated comedians. As London Hughes and Sophie Duker said, they are indeed the first black British women to be nominated, London for Best Comedy Show and Sophie for Best Newcomer. The most diverse group of nominees in the history of the Awards with the widest range of genres:physical, absurd and surreal comedy, standup and sketch."

The nominees for Best Comedy Show are:

• Darren Harriott: Good Heart Yute @ Pleasance Courtyard
• The Delightful Sausage: Ginster's Paradise @ Monkey Barrell
• Demi Lardner: Ditch Witch 800 @ Gilded Balloon Teviot
• Goodbear: Dougal @ Pleasance Dome
• Ivo Graham: The Game of Life @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Jessica Fostekew: Hench @ Monkey Barrell
• Jordan Brookes: I've Got Nothing @ Pleasance Courtyard
• London Hughes: To Catch A D**k @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Spencer Jones: The Things We Leave Behind @ Pleasance Courtyard

The winner is Jordan Brookes: I've Got Nothing

Nica Burns said of Jordan Brookes:"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."

The nominees for Best Newcomer are:

• Crybabies: Danger Brigade @Heroes@ Boteco
• Catherine Cohen: The Twist....? She's Gorgeous @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Helen Bauer: Little Miss Angel Baby Face @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Huge Davies: The Carpark @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Janine Harouni: Stand up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated) @Pleasance Courtyard
• Michael Odewale: #BLACKBEARSMATTER @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Nigel Ng: Culture Shocked @ Pleasance Courtyard
• Sophie Duker: Venus

The 2019 Best Newcomer Award goes to Catherine Cohen: The Twist....? She's Gorgeous @ Pleasance Courtyard

A show about living, laughing, loving as a young woman in today's world. Fantastic original songs sung with her phenomenal voice. Described by Bruce Dessau of the Standard as one of this year's freshest thrills, New York sensation Catherine (with Henry Koperski on keys) explores life as an immortal millennial who is tragically unverified on Twitter. At home in New York Cohen has a regular set at Alan Cumming's cult cabaret night, Club Cumming. Nica Burns said: "Hugely talented with a wonderful voice and charismatic personality, an instinctual comedian, very funny".

Of Jessica Brough and Fringe of Colour winning the Panel Prize, Dominic Maxwell, Chair of the Panel said: 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 awards, now in their 39th year, are directed by Nica Burns and celebrate the talent of both established and up-and-coming comedians performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each year. Previous winners have included Rose Matafeo, Al Murray, Bridget Christie, Jenny Eclair, The League of Gentleman, Frank Skinner, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans and Russell Kane.

New for this year, the awards are sponsored by comedy channel Dave, with the aim of further celebrating and supporting comics, from those breaking into the industry to much-loved names.

The panel saw over 750 eligible comedy shows to select the nominees. Chaired by Dominic Maxwell - Theatre and Comedy Critic, The Times, this year's panel consisted of seven professionals and three comedy punters representing the public:

• Dominic Maxwell (Panel Chair):Theatre & Comedy Critic, The Times
• Gerald Casey:Channel Director, Gold
• Hannah Duncombe: Producer, NIT/CPL Productions
• Tristram Fane Saunders:Commissioning Editor- Culture Desk, The Telegraph
• Paul Fleckney:The Guardian
• Suzy Grant:Producer, BBC Studios Comedy
• Nosheen Iqbal:The Observer
• Angela Jariwala:Public Competition Winner
• Gráinne Smyth:Public Competition Winner
• Michael Thomson:Public Competition Winner

The prize money for Best Comedy Show is £10,000, with £5,000 each for the Best Newcomer and the Panel Prize winner.

There will be a season of Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Award shows at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End this Autumn. Details to be announced soon.

A full history of the winners and nominees, eligibility rules and all other details about the Awards can be found at www.comedyawards.co.uk

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