British Comedy Guide in association with Angel Comedy and The Museum of Comedy has announced the winners The Comedian’s Choice Awards 2024, as voted by comedians at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Elf Lyons: Horses has been voted the Best Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in The Comedians’ Choice Awards. The show continues at Pleasance Courtyard until 26th August.
The inaugural Best Newcomer prize was awarded to Ian Lockwood who is performing Ian Lockwood: The Farewell Tour at Underbelly’s Bristo Square until 25th August.
The award for Best Person (intended to recognise anyone working in any capacity at the annual festival) was awarded for a second time to Alex Petty - co-founder and director of the Laughing Horse Free Festival.
For the first time, The Comedian’s Choice Awards have a prize fund thanks to generous support from Angel Comedy and The Museum of Comedy. When comedians voted, they were asked to provide details on their accommodation costs. The results reveal that performers are paying an average of £62 a night for a room, and the average length of stay is 15 nights. Therefore the winners of the Best Show and Best Newcomer Awards receive a cash prize of £930 each to help with their accommodation costs. Best Person Award winner Alex Petty receives a massage voucher.
Elf Lyons (pictured) said: "It is the greatest honour when other artists see your work, and support one another’s work. I feel like I've won the Fringe!"
Ian Lockwood said: "Everyone I've met at the Fringe has been incredibly kind and welcoming. I've never won anything in my entire life and to receive this from my peers is incredibly touching."
Barry Ferns (co-founder of Angel Comedy, who hosted the Awards Ceremony) said: "On this, the 10th year of the Comedians' Choice Awards, it feels fitting that for one winner it was their first Fringe and the other winner it was their 14th - in some ways it shows that it’s a very long game and I’m sure all of the performers that were nominated will, at some point, go on to win an award somewhere. Tonight, it was Elf and Ian."
The other nominees in The Comedians’ Choice Awards 2024, as voted for comedians were:
For BEST SHOW:
Chelsea Birkby: This is Life, Cheeky Cheeky, Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble, Jordan Brookes: Fontanelle, Mike Rice: Nasty Character, Natalie Palamides: WEER, Phil Ellis: Come On and Take The Rest of Me, Rob Copland: Gimme (One With Everything), Sarah Keyworth: My Eyes Are Up Here and Sid Singh: American Coloniser
And for BEST NEWCOMER:
Abby Wambaugh, Caitriona Dowden, Cobin Millage, Hannah Platt, Joe Kent-Walters, Jin Hao Li, Nate Kitch and Paulina Lenoir.
Founded in 2014, these unique awards set out to "help highlight the amazing work of those who may well otherwise go unrecognised, as judged by those who understand their efforts the best: their peers". Every comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe is eligible to both cast a vote, and to be voted for. There is no panel of judges and no industry specialists - only the performers themselves decide whom amongst them is worthy of special recognition.
