The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards have announced the shortlists for Best Show, Best Newcomer, the Panel Prize, Best Tech and Best Joke.

The nominees represent an extraordinary range of artists, styles and venues from across this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

ROMESH RANGANATHAN BEST SHOW SHORTLIST (PRIZE £5000)

• Brennan Reece: Live – PBH @ Liquid Rooms 16:30
• Dan Tiernan Quartz and All – Monkey Barrel 22:25
• Eric Rushton: Could Well Be In – Monkey Barrel 14:55
• Harriet Dyer: Easily Distra… - Monkey Barrel 20:35
• Lara Ricote: INKLING – Monkey Barrel 17:40
• Paul Currie: REMOVE YOUR SKIN PLEASE - Free Festival @ Counting House  20:30
• Paul Foot: The Future – Underbelly 19:20
• Reuben Kaye: Hard to Swallow – Assembly George Square Gardens 20:00
• The Last Funny Woman (Kate Cheka) – PBH Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms 17:55
• Tom Short: I Get ChatGPT To Write My Edinburgh Show – Hoots @ Nicolson Square 22:15

SARAH MILLICAN BEST NEWCOMER SHORTLIST (PRIZE £4000)

• Dane Buckley: Darling – Pleasance 18:00
• Marty Gleeson: Dog Ear – Pleasance 19:15
• Matt Klein: Boyoyoyoyoing - PBH Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth 00:35 
• Matthew Gallagher: Last Minute – The Stand 20:50
• Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage — Monkey Barrel 23:25
• Tarang Hardikar: If I'm Not Wrong – Pleasance 18:00

THE JAMES CORDEN/RHOD GILBERT PANEL PRIZE 

(PRIZE £5000)

Announcing the 5 Nominees for the 2026 James Corden/Rhod Gilbert ISH Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize. We are using these nominations to highlight the incredible support that these individuals and organisations give to artists and others at the Fringe.  

Henry Churney - Laugh For Life Comedy 'I decided to create Laugh For Life Comedy using my knowledge as a stand-up comedian and my previous experience supporting workplace wellbeing initiatives. I started with one course, supported by social prescribing via charities such as Care Merseyside and Come Together Hub. This has multiplied many times over. I have now run 15 courses  working with vulnerable adults.  It is a five week course that takes participants from their first nervous steps in the classroom all the way to performing on a professional stage. It is a process that builds confidence and communication skills and also builds a community; many of the participants finding a 'Comedy Creative' circle of friends that outlasts the course itself.  Turning their struggles into a comedy set changes the relationship people have with their own story. They become the ones who control their narrative.  In Edinburgh. 2026 with no additional funding I brought up 13 individuals, 11 of which were again debutant acts.

Jess Brough - The Fringe of Colour Database - owner Jess Brough says 'The Fringe of Colour Database has become a guiding tool for audiences and performers alike, helping them to find shows by underrepresented artists. The Database is open access and has been used in numerous creative ways by other cultural producers, such as the makers of The Fringe In Living Colour, who have created an easy way to save and book these shows via a frankly quite beautiful website. Every August, I run numerous community events and meet-ups, connecting Creatives of Colour at the Fringe and making it a little easier for us to support each other. I host coffee hours, ticket swaps, and a big party where Scotland-based Artists of Colour – poets and DJs – have a platform to shine'
https://www.fringeofcolour.co.uk/database

Lee Kyle/Felt Nowt - a comedy collective born out of the pandemic, raised funds to secure a full-time venue at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. The North East comedy collective is bringing 51 regional comedians to the Festival, providing a platform for performers who might otherwise never have the opportunity to take part. The group is running The Garrett, a 25 to 30-seat venue at The Alchemist on George Street, throughout the festival from August 7 to August 31. Felt Nowt member Anja Atkinson has been a driving force behind the ambitious venture — A real logistical challenge of bringing so many North East comedians together for an entire month, while also performing her own show every day. Throughout the month-long run, The Garrett is showcasing comedians from across the North East, giving them a valuable opportunity to perform and reach audiences they might otherwise struggle to access.

Live Comedy Association - The Live Comedy Association (LCA) has set up a crowdfunding campaign to support those people most affected by the demise of Big Difference Company, the charity behind Leicester Comedy Festival.  
Please support here https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/lcfsupportfund
Hundreds of people are owed money, many of which are individuals working in live comedy.  Some people can weather the storm but many cannot.  We know some people have suffered poor mental health as a result of being owed money, and others are experiencing real hardship.  The fund will prioritise those people most in need.  The LCA previously distributed £5,000 to people unpaid by Big Difference Company but we know many more people still need support.
The LCA says 'We have loved being at the Fringe this month and enjoyed meeting with members to discuss their work and how we might support them further.  We also hosted a panel discussion for comedians as part of the Fringe Central events programme.  But for us the work continues year round and we will continue to represent our 1600 members and work to improve working conditions for people working in grassroots live comedy sector across the year.  We will also keep shouting loudly to government and public agencies about the importance of live comedy and the need for support.'

Sarah-Louise Young - Sarah has organised solo artists at the Fringe meet-ups at the Fringe since 2022 for a bit of peer to peer support.  It has become a regular event at the Fringe, growing each year.  Nobody leaves without making a connection, and people support people after the events and during the Fringe.  Inspired by this, fellow theatremaker Victoria Melody and Sarah set up the Female & Female Identifying Solo Theatremakers Collective, which now has over 1000 members globally and offers year-round support for anyone making work alone.  They expanded to include non-binary members and have plans to create a second group which welcomes all genders.  They offer free online sessions throughout the year and a WhatsApp group support providing daily check-ins during Edinburgh.

And special mention to...

Jim Hooker - Not an official nominee because he's kind of the team now and we are all volunteers but definitely want to mention him here.  Jim contacted us a year or so ago and said he was willing to spend time working to automate the judging process for the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards.  Jim says, 'Last year I built a small AI powered fringe scheduler as a hobby project.. When I showed Nathan he told me about the mammoth task of scheduling the ISH awards judging. And I thought.. I can contribute something here. It became apparent very quickly that this was bigger and more intricate than what the little AI scheduler could do... And had a lot of fun over the next 6 months making a custom ISH awards scheduler. I'm a comedian and cyber security expert as my day job, so for me it was great to merge those two worlds.
I love what ISH are doing and I'd encourage anyone who has a skill they can contribute to help their brilliant work to offer it, not just for ISH but for eachother. We're in this together and there are more than enough people to make laugh for all of us.

TAKEOVER RADIO 106.9FM / MARK SILCOX JOKE SHORTLIST 

VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/V1euu4pEgKk

(PRIZE £1000.01)

• Chris Turner 'My cousin is autistic.  When you give him a Rubik's Cube it takes him 12 seconds... to say thank you.'
• Kate Butch 'I get called a nonce a lot... one of King Arthur's least popular knights.'
• Adam Flood 'I saw a sign in Gloucestershire which said 'Cheltenham - home of the races.' which is weird because everybody there was white.'
• Omar Badawy - 'Telling muslim parents you're bringing home an Arab Christian is like telling Prince Andrew you're bringing home a 12 year old whisky.'
• Eric Rushton '2006 was like watching a Christopher Nolan film at the cinema... everyone wanted a Wii'
• Anna Thomas 'The back of my car fell off the other day and you'll never guess what you can't buy in a car boot sale.'
• Brennan Reece 'If ever I was to do a gender reveal, I'd gather all my family and friends, I'd get a helium balloon - I'd pop it, there'd be nothing in it and I'd say 'We're not keeping it!''
• Paul Hilleard  'I'm not very good with words.  I only found out the other day that nuance doesn't mean paedo in French.'
• Amy Matthews '...he was a member of flat earth forums. Then inevitably they get back together and you’ve got to have this idiot over for dinner; you're serving him tiramisu thinking “I know you think the ocean’s got corners”' 
• Matthew Gallagher 'Here's a fact about the Anne Frank diary - they brought out an audiobook version of it - here's my review - it was sh*t - she was whispering, I couldn't hear anything that was going on.'

CHARLIE AWARD FOR TECH

Best show nominees picture above. Picture by Ed Moore