Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Sam Nicoresti has now added another title to her CV, winning the the UK Air Guitar Championship in London. This puts her straight through to the finals in Oulu, Finland.
On Saturday 27th June she shredded her way to victory in the UK Air Guitar Championships, winning a trophy, a title, and a trip to Finland to compete on a floating stage at the World Air Guitar Championships in August.
Sam is the first - and probably the last - person ever to win both the Edinburgh Fringe main award and the UK Air Guitar title in the same year. She faced off against fierce competition from a Guiness World Record holder, the ‘Unofficial Official Air Guitarist’ of The Darkness, a Britain’s Got Talent Semi-Finalist, and a former three-time UK Air Guitar Champion, to claim the trophy.
Sam, who appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown earlier in the year, scoring a 9-letter anagram and guessing the conundrum in her television debut, competed under the name Airlo Guv’na, and her winning performance was to Van Halen’s Eruption, considered one of the hardest and greatest guitar solos of all time.
The judging panel included former British Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater Robin Cousins MBE, the inventor of the ‘Roborecorder’, the Press Counsellor for the Finnish Embassy, a professional aerial gymnast, the current French Air Guitar Champion, and the 2024 Air Guitar World Champion Audience Favourite.
The Air Guitar World Championships was established in Oulu, Finland in 1996 and this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, in tandem with Oulu being awarded European Capital of Culture. The official slogan of the competition is “Make Air, Not War” and it aims to promote and ultimately bring about world peace by distributing air guitars throughout the world; because, as they say... “you can’t pick up a gun if you’re holding an air guitar”.
This August, hopefuls from all across the world will gather to compete for air god glory, and a custom-made guitar called “The Flying Finn”. The event typically attracts large crowds and intense media interest. This year, to honour Oulu’s title of Capital of Culture, a large stage is being built on the water. It is expected to be one of the biggest years for Air Guitar.
This is the first time the competition has been held in the UK since 2019, and the UK have not taken the world title since Zac “Mr Magent” Monro noodled his way to glory in 2002.
On winning the UK Championships, Nicoresti said “It will be the honour of my life to represent my people on the world stage. I have been practising for this day ever since I first heard the opening bars to Whole Lotta Love as a highly intelligent child. To have taken home the trophy in my first year of competing feels surreal. I am floored. I rock for trans rights and a free Palestine.”
Nicoresti is currently recuperating after sustaining a small neck injury during her performance. She is expected to make a full recovery in time for the final.
The UK Championships were organised this year by Piers Burnell, who has previously competed under the name James Bond Double Air Seven, as covered by BBC News, The Times and Telegraph, and this year will be performing in Finland as The Joke’Air.
Of the competition, Piers says “Air guitar is about confidence and jumping in at the deep end. The championships are like Eurovision on steroids.”
August promises to be a busy month for Nicoresti, as she is also returning to the Edinburgh Fringe with three shows. Her award-winning comedy hour Baby Doomer, which was just returned from a world tour; a one-off live performance of her viral stand-up special Wokeflake; and a work-in-progress of a new show, And For My Next Trick.
The Air Guitar World Final will take place in Finland across two days, on the 28th and 29th of August.
DETAILS
Baby Doomer (15th-19th August) @ Pleasance Courtyard
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/sam-nicoresti-baby-doomer
Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture (16th August) @ Shedinburgh, Assembly
https://bookings.shedinburgh.com/event/9854:115/9854:155/
And For My Next Trick [WIP] (15th-18th August) @ Monkey Barrel
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/sam-nicoresti-and-for-my-next-trick-wip
The Air Guitar World Championships @ Oulu, Finland (26th-29th August)
https://airguitarworldchampionships.com/en/home/
Photo credit: Freyja Hyde at Amplified Photography
