Nica Burns, Director of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, has revealed the judging panel for the 35th Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

She said, “I am delighted to announce the 2015 judging panel, chaired by a huge contributor to comedy, Lucy Lumsden, Head of Comedy at Sky.”

The panel consists of seven professionals and three comedy punters representing the public. They are Carl Cooper, Radio Producer- BBC; Alex Hardy, Comedy Critic-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 and Mark Muldoon, Public Panel Competition Winner.

Nica Burns continued: “2015 promises to be another exciting year for comedy at the Fringe with over 600 shows eligible for the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards and comedy maintaining its place as the largest strand of entertainment at the Fringe. 

 Last year’s Best Comedy Show winner John Kearns’ amazing trajectory has taken him from Foster’s Best Newcomer in 2013 to be the first comedian to win Foster’s Best Comedy Show the following year and this year his new sitcom Top Coppers co-starring 2014 Best Newcomer nominee Steen Raskopoulous, premieres on BBC3 on 19 August." 

There will be no changes in regard to the judging or the Awards categories. All shows eligible will be automatically seen, this includes Comedy Cabaret shows in the Cabaret section of the programme.  Last year over 500 different comedy shows were seen by the Awards team. The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 26 August with the winners announced at a lunchtime ceremony on Saturday 29 August.

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