Dee Allum has taken home the title of 2Northdown’s New Act Competition Winner 2021 as well as £500 prize money, a trophy, a free preview show at 2Northdown and a paid spot at sister venue 21Soho. Jack Chisnall was runner-up, and Vidura Rajapaksa came in third place. 

The team at 2Northdown said: “We are so pleased that even with 2Northdown being forced to close for 19 months, we could still go ahead with this competition. It’s a really important part of the acts’ comedy journey, and we love to see comedians start their journey on our stage.”

This year, the competition had over 400 applications of new comedy acts, from stand-up to sketch to musical to character comedy. The competition started back in September 2021, and heats ran every Monday at the venue in King’s Cross. Each week, the acts were scored by a panel of industry specialists including individuals from Off The Kerb, Tiger Aspects, Hollie Ebdon Management, United Agents, The Evening Standard, Country Mile Productions and more. 

The applications were whittled down to just 11 finalists – Alice India, Chin Wang, Dee Allum, Jack Chisnall, James Murphy, Matthew Hayhurst, Paddy Young, Raj Poojara, Sallyann Fellowes, Sam Serrano and Vidura Rajapaksa. 

2Northdown is part of the TicketText Group, along with sister venue 21Soho, production company Laughing Around and ticketing platform TicketText. The competition is held annually, with previous winners including Leo Reich and Katie Pritchard.