The Comedy Store Players have been named the Legend of Comedy at Leicester Comedy Festival’s annual awards ceremony tonight, in partnership with De Montfort University.
Also honoured were comedians including Helen Bauer, Jody Kamali, Kyrah Gray and Katie Norris for their outstanding performances at this year’s festival.
The Comedy Store Players - Neil Mullarkey, Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson and Ruth Bratt - who all attended the ceremony, said, "Leicester Comedy Festival 'Legends' award is a delightful way for us to mark our 40th birthday. We believe this may be the first award we've ever won, and it only took us just under half a century to get it."
Previous recipients of the Legend of Comedy award include Stewart Lee, Jo Brand, Lenny Henry, Victoria Wood, Barry Cryer, Arthur Smith, and last year’s winner, Jenny Eclair.
Charlotte Laidet, festivals and programme director at Big Difference, the charity behind the festival, commented, "Leicester Comedy Festival has always been about celebrating the talents in the comedy community, both on and off stage, and we are very proud once again to present these awards to thank everyone who help making our festival such a vibrant event.”
“This year we also wanted to celebrate Improv, an often-underappreciated comedy genre by giving the Legend of Comedy Award to the Comedy Store Players. This long-running organisation has had such a huge impact on the comedy scene that we wanted to celebrate them for their 40th anniversary.”
“Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone involved in Leicester Comedy Festival, we are looking forward to next year!”
The other winners were:
Best Show: Katie Norris: Farm Fatale
Best New Show: Helen Bauer: Work in Progress
Best Debut Show: Kyrah Gray: Work in Progress
Best Kids Show: Mr Sleepybum's Dream Machine
Best Variety Show: The Great Divinator: Touched By The Spirits
Audience Choice: A Very Serious Detective Play
Best Small Venue: The Black Horse
Best Large Venue: The Y Theatre
Best New Venue: Inside No9
Best Poster: Keep It Clean: Family Comedy Club
Liberty Award: The Worst Record Cover of the World Exhibition
Best Promoter: TripleCeePee
Tracey Miller Community Award: Welly’s Work Place & Sunny Skies Community Cafe
Student of the Year: Livy Mularczyk
Business Contribution: Versatile
Contribution to LCF25: Juice Creative Design
Chris Maughan Lifetime Contribution Award: Jokes On Us
Leicester Comedy Festival will return from February 4 to 22 next year.
Picture by Salim Sai
