This year's So You Think You're Funny? final in Edinburgh in August had an international flavour to it and so did the latest Funny Women Stage Award final. As comedy continues to thrive it is becoming more cosmopilitan, more multi-cultural. And the standard keeps getting stronger too.
First act at the Bloomsbury Theatre helped to underline this point. Anshita Koul was quick to emphasise her Indian roots, suggesting that while 10,000 followers on social media might sound impressive in a piddling country like Englamd it didn't mean diddly squat in India. Koul was certainly assured, which made up for some of the weaker material. She went down very well, having drawn the short straw and going first.
Second act Fathiya Saleh continued the multi-cultural theme but had a different personality to Koul. The only thing they shared was bags of confidence. Saleh, who is part-Somali, had a very warm, friendly, chatty delivery, with material that ranged from culture clashes with her family to issues with her mother being over-protective which were pretty universally relatable. This was a strong set that with a different judging panel might have landed a placing.
Third on was Jessie Nixon from Bristol. Nixon has already featured in other compeitions and you can see why. She talks honestly and candidly about herself, sex and body image, and also has a streak of cynicism and is happy to bitch about others, all the while doing it with a degree of charm. She has a freshness to her act and even though she is fairly conventional she doesn't remind me of anyone i've seen before, which is always a good sign. And she makes me laugh. Nixon picked up a deserved third place from the judges.
Julia Stenton did well to avoid cracking an opening joke about resembling Liz Truss before proceeding to impress with a series of stories about people and things she hated. Well, mainly people she hated. I was judging and thought she really committed to her misanthropy. She wasn't afraid to be disliked and I felt she could have been a winner. The other judges weren't so keen on her and she was not placed. Maybe they were put off by her resemblance to the PM.
The first half closed with the six foot plus Kate Martin cracking a joke about how her friends use her a meeting place on nights out. It was a great joke when Stephen Merchant told it too - I'm not suggesting it was plagiarism, more a genuine case of tall minds thinking alike. After this start Martin got better and better. She was another act who oozed cofidence and owned the stage, even when her gags didn't quite land. She's definitely got funny bones and I think we will be seeing more of her.
