Mexican-American comic Lara Ricote leads the shortlist for the annual Edinburgh comedy award. The nominees skew heavily toward whimsy and alternative styles, with top contenders competing for a £10,000 main prize at a ceremony hosted by Richard Gadd and Ayoade Bamgboye.
The annual Edinburgh comedy award, once known as the Perrier, has revealed its shortlists for both the best show and best newcomer prizes, highlighting an artistic landscape that leans deeply into theatrical eccentricity. Often dubbed the Oscars of comedy,
this year’s lineup features acts hymning beliefs in healing crystals, dreamily counting sheep, and exploring mystery and messages.
Contenders and Veterans Vie for the Main £10,000 Prize
The award favourite is Mexican-American comic Lara Ricote, a former fringe best newcomer and co-star of Sam Campbell’s Channel 4 mockumentary Make That Movie. Her nominated hour, Inkling, is a remarkable hour about picking up on the messages that come one’s way, and how that’s complicated by, in the 29-year-old’s case, being hard of hearing.
Returning to the annual shortlist are several familiar faces. Chris Cantrill, a three-time nominee whose double act sidekick Amy Gledhill won in 2024, joins the contenders alongside shouty Mancunian Dan Tiernan, who has been nominated twice before and brings his show Quartz and All. They are joined by goofball prop comic Spencer Jones, also nominated twice before. Jones is the veteran of this year’s list with his own BBC show, The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk, already under his belt.
On a shorter list than we’ve seen in recent years, they are joined by Cornwall’s Harriet Dyer, recently announced as a participant in the Halloween edition of Amazon Prime’s smash hit Last One Laughing UK, and whose show Easily Distra… celebrates her inability to stay on topic. Completing the main category is Li Jin Hao, the UK-based Singaporean whose show Falling from a Moon develops the brand of woozy philosophical comedy pioneered in his 2024 show Swimming in a Submarine.
The most egregious omissions from the lineup, which is selected by industry and public panellists, are Elf Lyons with The Woman on the Edge, an extraordinary breakup show that’s got everyone talking; Aussie stunt-comedy offering Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour; and the Radio 4 sketch trio Crybabies with their brilliantly executed horror pastiche The Scaring.
Newcomers and the Rise of Alternative Comedy
On the best newcomer shortlist – for an award previously won by Sarah Millican, Tim Minchin and Harry Hill – there is more whimsy still, with too many kooks at a festival where socially engaged or political comedy is vanishingly thin on the ground. Celebrating a surfeit of invention, the newcomer acts include Limerick’s Marty Gleeson, a quartet of US clowns performing their Underground Monk Show, and Birmingham teacher turned oddball Tom Towelling, with a show that binds its audience together in wool.
Completing the newcomer nominees, at a time when the proficiency of first-time Edinburgh acts seems to be rocketing, are Dom McGovern with Prize Hog, TV regular but fringe rookie Fatiha El-Ghorri with Cockney Stacking Doll, Freddie Meredith with the terrific Need a Light? and Omar Badawy with Guided Detour.
“These are the people shaping the comedy landscape and we can’t wait for audiences beyond Edinburgh to enjoy them as much as we did”
Liz Lewin, director of comedy series at Netflix UK and chair of the judging panel
Ceremony Details and Prize Figures
The awards will be handed out at a ceremony this Saturday by 2016 winner Richard Gadd and last year’s best newcomer and now SNL:UK star Ayoade Bamgboye. The winners will receive £10,000 for best show (sponsored by Audible), and £5,000 for best newcomer. Recent winners of the main award include Rose Matafeo, Hannah Gadsby and last year’s champ Sam Nicoresti.
