The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, an alternative set of awards announced when the long-established Edinburgh Comedy Awards did not have a sponsor, has revealed their long lists for Best Show and Best Newcomer.

A collective of volunteers have seen eligible shows and have chosen a longlist of shows below.  This week the judges will see more shows to choose a shortlist of 5 shows in each category. The shortlists will be announced next Monday, 21st August.  The winners will be announced on Saturday 26th August at the ceremony at The Three Sisters (Maggie's Chamber). Tickets will be available for the 40 minute ceremony shortly.

If you would like to find out more about the awards and even sponsor them, please visit the website..  The ISH Awards (Insert Sponsor Here) are still looking for a sponsor so to get your name on the awards please get in touch through the website - they are looking for a one-off sponsorship of £20k (your name instead of ISH on all publicity) so they can give £10k, £5k and £5k respectively to the winners of Best Show, Best Newcomer and Panel Prize.  Otherwise the trophy is what will count!

Comedy Producer and comedian Sarah Bowles is running the ISH Awards.  Sarah Bowles says ‘We have been blown away by the incredible support the Awards has received from comedians, producers, all the amazing venues that have given the judges comps, and the Edinburgh Comedy Awards themselves who have been so supportive of the process.  We love the Edinburgh Comedy Awards and this idea came about when it looked like they weren't going ahead this year - we are so pleased that they are and are so grateful for their support and we can't wait to hear their nominees next week too. As we all know being judged as well as judging is hard and unscientific, but our main rule was did the show make the audience and/or judge laugh lots on the day we saw it and do we think it could be judged as the best show or the best newcomer on the Fringe.  

That's quite a high bar of course.  Not everyone can win and be nominated, and not being on these lists doesn't mean your show isn't great, we saw a lot of great shows that aren't on this list as we need to keep the list down and make the cut somewhere - and there's always a chance that we saw your on the wrong day for you (doesn't that always happen?!)  What we are saying is this list obviously does not represent by any means the definitive list of what is great at the Fringe, it's just our panel of judges' opinions, and at the end of the day you will hear much better from the streets and word of mouth what to see, always listen to the streets rather than awards and reviews.

The more established Edinburgh Comedy Awards does now have three sponsors. They will be jointly sponsored this year by Sky, DLT Entertainment and The Victoria Wood Foundation. Their shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 23rd August, and the Nominees’ photo-call will be on Thursday 24th August.  The 41st Edinburgh Comedy Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 26th August.