The judging panel for the 35th Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards was revealed today.
Seven professionals and three comedy punters representing the public will decided which acts deserve the title of Best Comedy Show, Best Newcomer, and the Panel Prize.
The Best Comedy Award carries a prize of £10,000 with £5,000 prize money for each of the other two awards.
The panelists, to be chaired by Lucy Lumsden, Head of Comedy at Sky, are:
- Carl Cooper, Radio Producer at BBC
- Alex Hardy, Comedy Critic at The Times
- John Nicholson, novelist, writer and freelance comedy critic – Mirror Online
- Charlie Perkins, multi-platform content developer, Blink Industries
- Zoe Rabnett, Senior Producer - Just for Laughs
- Ben Williams, Comedy Editor - Time Out
- Dave Deverick, Public Panel Competition Winner
- Kate Emmett, Public Panel Competition Winner
- Mark Muldoon, Public Panel Competition Winner
Nica Burns, Director of the Awards said over 600 Fringe shows are eligible for this year's Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
The Edinburgh Comedy Awards were known from 1991 to 2005 as the Perrier Awards, after the Nestle bottled water brand. Fosters has supported the awards since 2009.
The awards can provide winners with a big boost. Last year’s winner of the Best Comedy Show John Kearns (and 2013 winner of Foster’s Best Newcomer Award) has a new sitcom Top Coppers starting on BBC3 on 19 August.
As with last year, all eligible shows will be automatically seen, including Comedy Cabaret shows in the Cabaret section of the programme.
The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 26 August with the winners announced at a lunchtime ceremony on Saturday 29 August.