The Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Established in 1981, they are the most prestigious comedy prize in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The awards have been directed and produced by

Nica Burns Lounica Maureen Patricia "Nica" Burns (born August 1954) is a London theatre producer and co-owner with her business partner Max Weitzenhoffer of the Nimax Theatres group, comprising six West End theatres: the Palace, Lyric, Apollo, Garrick ...

since 1984.

Format

The main prize, which was for many years the only prize, and is now known as The Donald and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show, is awarded "for the funniest, most outstanding, up-and-coming comic / comedy show / act" at the Fringe. The winner receives a cash prize of £10,000. The DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer Award category was introduced in 1992 for Harry Hill, and is given to the best "performer or act who is performing their first full-length show (50 minutes or more)". The prize is £5,000. Newcomers are eligible for the Best Comedy Show Award, but no act is allowed to appear on both shortlists in the same year. A further prize, the Panel Prize, was inaugurated in 2006. All shows are eligible, and the award may not be awarded at all, if the panel so choose. This happened in 2017, when for the first time there were joint winners of the main prize. Previously, in 2008, it had been awarded to "every comedian on the Fringe". Like Best Newcomer, the Panel Prize winner receives a cash prize of £5,000.

History

The original award was created by Perrier in 1981 as a way of supporting young talent. Prior to this, there had been no award recognition for comedy shows on the Fringe. ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' had introduced Fringe Firsts in 1973 for theatre. However, revues, then the dominant type of comedy at the Fringe, were excluded. The first Perrier in fact advertised itself as for the "most outstanding revue", thus overlooking stand-up, which was beginning to emerge as a force due to the influence of the

alternative comedy Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe ...

scene. The inaugural award and £1,000 prize was presented to the

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

, a cast that included

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

Emma Thompson Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Emma Thompson on screen and stage, Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson, her accola ...

Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, singer, musician and writer. He first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. Fry and Laurie act ...

and Tony Slattery. Their show, entitled ''The Cellar Tapes'' played at St Mary Street Hall and was promoted in the programme with the line, "one of the strongest casts for several years, has already toured in southern England with great success." The award was presented by

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

, who had performed with the

Oxford Revue The Oxford Revue is a comedy group primarily featuring students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, England. Beginning in 1953, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, actors and satirists—as is the case with ...

in 1976. The later success of these initial winners would boost the profile of the awards. However, former

Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford, Universities of Oxford and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collect ...

revue members had always been able to find success in light entertainment, so the effect of the award on their careers may be exaggerated. Nonetheless, the 1981 Award retains symbolic power for new comedians wanting to find fame at the Fringe. Many other award winners and nominees have gone on to forge successful careers in comedy and the media industry including Lee Evans, Milton Jones, '' Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' creators

Richard Ayoade Richard Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British comedian, actor, writer, director and presenter. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 Br ...

and Matt Holness, double act

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter, singer and farmer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', and is a weekday morning-show presenter on C ...

and

Ben Miller Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English comedian, actor and author. He rose to fame as a member of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, with Alexander Armstrong. He is known for roles as Angus Jeremy Bough in the '' Johnny Eng ...

, '' QI'' panellist Alan Davies and '' Mock the Week'' panellist

Chris Addison Christopher David Addison (born 5 November 1971) is a British comedian, writer, actor, and director. He was a panellist on several editions of TV comedy panel show '' Mock the Week''. He is known for lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he ...

. Australian Comedian Brendon Burns has said that he is "arguably the least successful winner" of the award. A stand-up first won the award in 1987. Sean Hughes was the youngest winner of the award, at the age of 24 in 1990. A Best Newcomer Award was added in 1992, won by

Harry Hill Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an offbeat, energetic performanc ...

, and in 2006 the inaugural Panel Prize was won by

Mark Watson Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is an English comedian, novelist and producer. Early life Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh people, Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul Watson (footba ...

. The panel prize was awarded to 'all performers' in 2008, and the £4,000 prize money was put behind their bar at the end of August party. 2013 was the first year that all three awards went to shows in independent venues outside the so-called 'big four'. John Kearns (PBH) won Best Newcomer, Bridget Christie (The Stand) won Best Show and Adrienne Truscott (Heroes @ Bob's Bookshop) won the panel prize. In 2014, John Kearns became the first comedian to win Best Newcomer and Best Comedy Show in consecutive years. In the same year, James Meehan was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award with Gein's Family Giftshop, while winning the panel prize with Funz and Gamez. In 2017, for the first time, two awards were given for Best Show ( John Robins and Hannah Gadsby). No panel prize was awarded in 2017. In 2018, Rose Matafeo became the first non-white comedian to win Best Comedy Show for a solo show, and the first New Zealander to win the award. Only four other female solo stand-up comedians had won the award before her: Jenny Eclair (1995), Laura Solon (2005), Bridget Christie (2013), and Hannah Gadsby (2017). In 2022, Amy Gledhill was nominated for best newcomer as a solo act, and best show as part of The Delightful Sausage. She was the first person to be nominated for involvement in two shows in the same year since Dan Antopolski in 2000. Jordan Gray became the first solo transgender act to be nominated for the main prize, while Sam Campbell was the first winner of the main prize to do a shorter run.

Sponsorship

From their inception in 1981 until 2005 the awards were sponsored by mineral water brand Perrier, during which time they were known as the Perrier Comedy Awards. Sponsorship then passed to the Scottish-based bank Intelligent Finance and for 2006, the first year of their involvement, the awards were known as the if.comeddies, changing to the if.comedy awards for 2007 and 2008. In March 2009 Intelligent Finance announced it would not be renewing its sponsorship deal. The 2009 awards were known as the Edinburgh Comedy Award, sponsored by AbsoluteRadio.co.uk. From 2010 until 2015 the awards were sponsored by Foster's Lager. From 2016 the awards have been sponsored by lastminute.com until 2019 when Dave began to sponsor the awards. For 2023, each award currently has a separate sponsor, being sponsored by Sky TV, DLT Entertainment and The

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, musician, screenwriter, and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act ...

Foundation, respectively. 2024 saw DLT Entertainment expand its sponsorship to include both the DLT Entertainment Newcomer Award as well as The Don and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show. In order to avoid confusion due to the frequency of name changes, past winners are now often said to have won "the Eddie", a popular colloquial term for the award, rather than referring to a specific year's sponsor.

Controversy

Nestlé

In 1995, Perrier was bought by

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

, the subject of a long-running

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

based on alleged violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, leading to calls to boycott or to eliminate the awards taken up by some Fringe venues and performers, including former winners

Steve Coogan Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English-Irish actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. His accolades include four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Aw ...

Stewart Lee Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, and deadpan delivery. Lee began his career in 1989 and formed the comedy duo Lee and Herring with Richard ...

and Rob Newman, led a campaign of protest against the award, beginning in 2001, called Baby Milk Action. The Nestlé boycott also led to the alternative ''Tap Water Awards'' which ran from 2001 to 2006, and aimed to promote access to safe supplies of drinking water and sanitation in developing countries; these awards were suspended for 2007 due to "having beaten Nestlé". Multiple winners were chosen each year, including established comedians like Stewart Lee and Robert Newman, and, in the award's final year, promoter Peter Buckley Hill for his Free Fringe initiative.

Inclusivity

The 2002 awards were criticised because no female acts were shortlisted, the second consecutive year in which that was the case. In 2009, they were again criticised for all the nominees being male, as well as all being white, English and all performing at the same venue, The Pleasance.

Notes

{{Reflist, 2, refs= {{Cite news , author=Arika Akbar , url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/news/saunders-bemoans-absence-of-female-standup-comedians-760104.html , title=Saunders Bemoans Absence of Female Standup Comedians , work=

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, publisher=independent.co.uk (Arts & Entertainment) , date=2007-11-23 , access-date=2008-05-05 {{cite news , title=Perrier Ends Edinburgh Comedy Tie , url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5078940.stm , publisher=

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, date=2006-06-14 , access-date=2008-05-05 {{cite web , url=http://www.babymilkaction.org/ , title=Baby Milk Action , access-date=2008-05-05 {{Cite news , url = http://www.babymilkaction.org/www.babymilkaction.org/press/press14june06.html , title = Nestlé Pulls Plug on Perrier Award , work = Press Release , publisher = babymilkaction.org , date = 2006-06-14 , access-date = 2008-05-05 , url-status = dead , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080610134552/http://www.babymilkaction.org/www.babymilkaction.org/press/press14june06.html , archive-date = 10 June 2008 {{cite news , title=Boycott Perrier: Newman Calls for Corporate Protest , url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2001/07/24/3217/boycott_perrier , work=Chortle: The UK Comedy Guide , date=2001-07-24 , access-date=2009-05-05 {{cite web, url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3646086/Edinburgh-reports-time-to-stand-up-for-the-Perrier.html, title=Edinburgh reports: time to stand up for the Perrier, last=Cavendish, first=Dominic, date=2005-08-24, work=The Daily Telegraph, location=London, access-date=2009-06-04 {{cite web, url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2009/06/03/9006/no_ifs..., title=No ifs..., publisher=chortle.co.uk, access-date=2009-06-05 {{cite web , url=http://www.comedyawards.co.uk/judging.asp , title=Eligibility Rules – Edinburgh Comed , publisher=Comedyawards.co.uk , access-date=2017-02-25 , archive-date=7 December 2010 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207135957/http://comedyawards.co.uk/judging.asp , url-status=dead "Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards"
Retrieved 13 August 2010 {{cite web, url=https://www.ft.com/content/556c767a-962c-11de-84d1-00144feabdc0, title=Edinburgh Fringe Awards, website=Financial Times, access-date=8 September 2018, last=Shuttleworth, first=Ian {{cite news, url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/26/edinburgh-comedy-awards-2015-the-nominations-in-full , title=Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2015: The nominees in full , newspaper=The Guardian , access-date=2015-08-26 {{cite web, url=http://www.hideawaylive.co.uk/live-standup-comedy-2611 , title=Live Stand-Up Comedy | HIDEAWAY – London's premier live music and comedy club , publisher=Hideawaylive.co.uk , access-date=2017-02-25 {{Cite news , url = http://www.if.com/eddies/pressrelease140606.pdf , title = Intelligent Sponsor for the Oscars of Comedy , work = Press release , publisher = if.com , date = 2006-06-14 , access-date = 2008-05-05 , url-status = dead , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090920054812/http://www.if.com/eddies/pressrelease140606.pdf , archive-date = 20 September 2009 {{cite web, url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jun/03/edinburgh-comedy-awards-nica-burns, title=Can Nica Burns save the comedy awards formerly known as Perrier?, last=Lee, first=Veronica, date=2009-06-03, website=Guardian.co.uk, access-date=2009-06-04 {{cite news , author=Andy McSmith , title=Edinburgh comedy prize loses its sponsor , url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/edinburgh-comedy-prize-loses-its-sponsor-1650599.html , work=

, date=2009-03-21 , access-date=2009-05-18 {{cite web , author=Nica Burns , author-link=Nica Burns , url=http://www.if.com/eddies/history.html , title=The Birth of the Comedy Awards: Nica Burns Looks Back , access-date=2008-05-05 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509164046/http://www.if.com/eddies/history.html , archive-date=9 May 2008 {{cite web, url=http://www.edfringe.com/story.html?id=117 , title=Past winners of the Perrier Comedy Award , date=2009-05-01 , publisher=edfringe.com , access-date=2009-06-05 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050414202416/http://www.edfringe.com/story.html?id=117 , archive-date=14 April 2005 {{cite web, author=Hello , url=http://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/what-s-on/theatre/comic-has-all-answers-1-1470539 , title=Comic has all answers , publisher=The Scarborough News , access-date=2017-02-25 {{cite web , title=Comedy Judges 'myopic' for Pleasance picks , work=The Scotsman , url=http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Comedy-judges-39myopic39-for-.5596777.jp , access-date=28 August 2009 {{cite news , newspaper=

, title=Artistic anarchy: 70 years of Edinburgh's Fringe Festival , last=Searle , first=Maddy , url=https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/arts/artistic-anarchy-70-years-edinburghs-fringe-festival/ , date=11 July 2017 , access-date=13 October 2017 {{cite news , author=Imogen Tilden , title=Perrier Judges Name the Cream of Edinburgh's Comedy , url=https://www.theguardian.com/edinburghfestival2001/story/0,10640,540846,00.html , work= guardian.co.uk , date=2001-08-22 , access-date=2008-05-05 {{cite web , url=http://www.tapwaterawards.org/ , title=Tap Water Awards: Having beaten Nestlé, we're having a rest , access-date=2011-03-25 , archive-date=12 June 2007 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612153156/http://www.tapwaterawards.org/ , url-status=dead {{cite magazine , title=How Comedy Captured the Edinburgh Fringe: Part 2 , last=Venables , first=Ben , magazine= The Skinny , url=http://www.theskinny.co.uk/comedy/opinion/how-comedy-captured-the-edinburgh-fringe-part-2 , date=6 June 2017 , access-date=13 October 2017 {{cite magazine , title=How Comedy Captured the Edinburgh Fringe: Part 4 , last=Venables , first=Ben , magazine= The Skinny , url=http://www.theskinny.co.uk/comedy/opinion/how-comedy-captured-the-edinburgh-fringe-part-4 , date=6 June 2017 , access-date=13 October 2017 {{cite magazine, last=Venables , first=Ben , magazine= Fest , title=The Edinburgh Fringe, or The Great Big Comedy Takeover , url=https://www.festmag.co.uk/comedy/103800-the-edinburgh-fringe-the-great-big-comedy-takeover , date=22 July 2017 , access-date=13 October 2017

External links

Official site
British comedy and humour awards Scottish awards 1981 establishments in Scotland Awards established in 1981 Scottish comedy Edinburgh Festival Fringe Culture in Edinburgh