Gilded Balloon

The So You Think You're Funny? competition has been going for 26 years and in that time winners have included the likes of Peter Kay, Tommy Tiernan and Dylan Moran. So it was strange watching – and being a judge at – last night's final at the Gilded Balloon and trying to imagine which one of the nine newbies onstage – much newer to stand-up than the Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees – would one day play the O2 or be TV stars. Yet even at this positively embryonic point in their careers one could see signs in some of the acts of greatness to come.

First up was Nicky Wilkinson. It's compulsory to say here that the opening spot is always tough (although compere Zoe Lyons did a fabulous job of warming up the crowd) and Nicky Wilkinson had to work hard to make an impression. For me the main problem was that a significant chunk of material was about putting the boot into her hometown of Hull. By sheer coincidence Lucy Beaumont has a similar schtick. If only Wilkinson had come from Grimsby maybe I'd have like her more. When she joked that she was like Hull because neither "have quite achieved its full potential" she summed up her act for me. A promising start but not good enough for a placing.

Russ Peers was another act from the north of England, Barrow-in-Furness – his name looked at a glance like a misprint of superstar Russell Peters and from a distance he looked like a less manic giant Marek Larwood. Peers was good but a little generic. A routine about watching drunk women on the street late at night was certainly crowdpleasing but hardly advancing the form of stand-up. He was a little more interesting when he talked about coming out – part-northern bloke, part sophisticated, he lives on crispy pancakes, pies and tapas. Again, promise, but still early days.

Laura McLenaghan was not particularly original either when it came to material, but she did put a fresh angle on well-trodden terrain with some inventive use of language. Aged 27, she was noticing that her friends were starting to have children. Somehow though, she couldn't understand how a baby could come out of a vagina. "The whole thing is at best implausible." She was also good at dissecting the old "life is like a box of chocolates line" – instead of not knowing what you'll get the thing about chocolates is you know exactly what you'll get, she pointed out. I still felt she had a long way to go though, but was outvoted by the other judges and McLenaghan came third, picking up a £1000 cheque.

One thing you could say about the competition was that you never knew what you were going to get next. For me the highlight of the first half was Alasdair Beckett King. With his almost-waist-length red hair he was funny before he even spoke and he had a great twist on the usual "I look like…" opening, which I won't repeat but came with a fantastic visual flourish. The rest of his act could not quite live up to this start and was a mix of the mainstream and the offbeat, with subjects ranging from being a vegan to drawing burqas on Skittles packets. He was certainly unusual, if not always hilarious.

Andrew McBurney finished the first half with a whispered delivery and looked on the verge of an onstage meltdown as he talked about breaking up with his girlfriend. It was - presumably - all an act but it was almost frighteningly convincing and worked incredibly well. When the audience wasn't laughing everyone sat in absolute pin-drop silence, which suggests that McBurney has something. He just wasn't funny enough to get a placing. 

After the break Jenny Collier was a little generic, peddling that tired old "I'm Welsh and posh" line. OK, it might be a combination that is not used every night, but somehow it felt too familiar. Maybe it was the sheep-shagging gag, maybe it was the banter about being single, but Collier was good without making any great impression. She was very likeable though, which could take her a long way, but this time round it felt like early days. 

Essex comic Edd Hedges (pictured) got a laugh simply by walking on and explaining that despite the beard and bulky physique he was only 19. Despite his age he was supremely confident and had real presence. His material had plenty of style too, even when it was dealing with topics as mundane as rock festivals, crisp sandwiches, late night train travel or his own "Victorian sex pest" appearance. He was one of the acts on the bill who I could see having a significant career in comedy. 

Hedges was a tough act to follow but Tom Taylor immediately caught my eye. Mainly because when he sat down with his portable keyboard I assumed he was a David O'Doherty tribute act. In the same way that I might have preferred Nicky Wilkinson if she had been from Grimsby I might have preferred Taylor if he had been, say, a drummer. Taylor really only had one joke but at least it was a good one – the lyrics of his songs took you in one direction before doing a nifty U-turn. Tim Minchin does a similar trick in one of his many songs, but with Taylor it was all he had. There were funny lines and maybe he will develop into something but tonight he was way too limited.

And so we came to the final act. Again a traditionally tough spot, but tiny Australian stand-up Demi Lardner, who qualified for the Edinburgh heats by winning the RAW competition at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, made an immediate impact because of her appearance, sporting a white shirt and bow-tie and looking more like a 13-year-old boy than a 19-year-old woman. She did not blow me away but I could see she had something and it was refreshing that she didn't do seven minutes all about her appearance. Instead her short set was quirky, engaging and occasionally dark – Lardner suggested inserting bee larvae into a body on its deathbed to give the mortician a surprise. When it came to judging we had no alternative but to make both Hedges and Lardner the winners, splitting the £5000 for first and £2000 for second between them (pictured above, pic by Steve Ullathorne).

Formidable Edinburgh legend, Gilded Balloon boss and SYTYF? founder Karen Koren came on and rounded things up before Sarah Millican read out the results and pointed out that she only came second in SYTYF? in 2005 (Tom Allen won), so who knows what lays in store for these two winners. Apart from anything else the result made for a great photo opportunity. If some film producer wants to remake the Schwarzenegger and DeVito movie Twins they have the cast right here. Conclusive proof that comedy comes in all shapes and sizes.