Comedians and performers who took part in Leicester Comedy Festival 2021 & The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival 2021 have been announced as nominees in the annual awards organised to celebrate the events. The winners will be announced at an invitation only online awards ceremony taking place on Monday 29th March and hosted by Zoe Lyons. Acts nominated include Ahir Shah, Louise Young, Sikisa, Joe Thomas, Jamie d’Souza, Weirdos Comedy, Tim Key, Esther Manito, Stuart Laws, Fin Taylor, Jonny Awsum, Paul Currie, Philip Simon, Jed Salisbury and Gary Jennison.
The awards were set up in 2006 and recognise the contribution people make to the February festivals. This year awards will be presented in categories including Best Show, Best Promoter, Best Festival Performance, Contribution to Leicester Comedy Festival 2021 and Best Kids Show. Some of the nominees have been decided upon by a panel of 26 members of the public who saw all eligible performances during the 19 day festivals, which ended on Sunday 21st February.
Founding Director, Geoff Rowe, said: “the 2021 festivals were clearly very different to previous festivals given everything was online. However, we still wanted to recognise the amazing contribution performers and others made to the events and we are still going ahead with our ceremony. We simply couldn’t do the festivals without the involvement of so many people and the annual ceremony is our chance to recognise some of these people and organisations. Last year our awards ceremony was watched by over 4,000 people online and we expect more to join us this year. We hope everyone who was involved in the festivals this year will join us (and dress smartly!) to celebrate the continued success of Leicester Comedy Festival and The UK Kids’ Comedy Festival.”
A special Lifetime Contribution Award will also be presented on the night, to someone or an organisation who has made a significant contribution to the festival over a number of years. Festival producers will also present a Legend of Comedy Award to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to British comedy. Previous winners have included Barry Cryer, Ken Dodd, Victoria Wood and Johnny Vegas.
The full list of nominees are:
Best Show
Weirdos Comedy: Gary & The Crisp Factory
Tim Key: He Used Thought As A Wife (The Recital)
Esther Manito: #Notallmen
Stuart Laws: Single Father Of None
Fin Taylor: Irrelevant Material For A Post-Vaccine World
Best Festival Appearance
Ahir Shah
Louise Young
Sikisa
Joe Thomas
Jamie d’Souza
Best Podcast
Biggest Idiot
Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown
The Dinner Party
Comedy Arcade
Jessica Fostekew: Hoovering
Best Kids Show
Jonny Awsum: The Gag Slinging Guitar Hero
Paul Currie: Turbo Fool
Philip Simon: School’s Out Comedy Club
Jeddy Bear & Gary’s Picnic
Liberty Award
Jericho Comedy
The Joke Spot/Leicester City Libraries
Beyond A Joke series
No More Jockeys Live/TripleCeePee
Weirdos/Gary & The Crisp Factory
Best Promoter
TripleCeePee
Just The Tonic
Tickled Pink
Leicester Cathedral
Tracey Miller Community Award
A Place To Grow (Blaby District BIG Weekend)
Headway Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
North West Leicestershire District Schools
Tiernan Douieb
Focus Charity
Contribution to LCF21
NextUp Comedy
Rob Gee
MerchAid/Cool As Leicester
DCMS/Arts Council England
Business of the year
Octopus Energy
PPL PRS Ltd
Cool As Leicester
NextUp Comedy
The Rowleys Partnership
