Comedy awards

Conditions of eligibility

• Shows must be listed in the Comedy section of edfringe.com as a solo, sketch or multiple performer comedy show.

• Shows must be listed as taking place on at least 10 dates between 10 and 21 August during Fringe 2023.

• Entrants must upload a film of their full show, and include the link to it in their application, by mid-July ideally. The sooner an entry is made with a link to the film, the more chance of it being watched by the large industry panel who sift the entries.

  Therefore previews filmed and submitted before 31 July (by the Sunday before the Fringe starts) will get priority. From 31 July until entries close on Sunday 13 August at 23:59, the chance of the film being watching by most panellists will diminish daily.

• Film your full show as soon as possible and upload the film online (eg YouTube). Amateur filming is fine but performers must be visible and clearly heard; we recommend a number of performances are filmed, then the preferred one submitted.

• The submitted film must be of this year's Fringe show and filmed in June, July or early August 2023, and of a similar length to the show you have listed on edfringe.com.

Only shows meeting the following criteria should be submitted for inclusion:

• Entrants should be breakthrough comedy performers without a comedy agent; therefore the submitted show is likely to be a debut comedy show by performer(s) who are self-starters and believe they are 'television ready'.
• The performer(s) is/are permanently resident in the UK and ROI.
• None of the performers and/or the show should have already won or been nominated for any other major comedy award, in the UK or elsewhere.
• None of the performers have previously been in a show which won any category in Amused Moose Comedy Awards.

Respected comedy industry panellists view all the online submissions before selecting a large number of shows to be seen live from the beginning of the Fringe, from which panellists select six to ten nominees.

Award winners are selected by a judging panel of comedy industry professionals who have seen the nominated shows live.

There are usually three awards, generally awarded in the final week of Edinburgh Fringe.

Find out more and enter

Panel Prize: Like the Fringe itself, there are no rules. Everyone is eligible. It is entirely in the gift of the Panel and Award Director and may not be awarded at all. The prize is £5,000.

All shows listed in the comedy and cabaret section of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe brochure are automatically checked for eligibility. Shows needed to be playing the dates as outlined in the eligibility rules in order to be judged.

For further information on eligibility, please visit comedyawards.co.uk.

All eligible shows are seen by the judging panel, awards administration team and scouts, who start covering shows from the first day of the festival. The judging panel consists of comedy critics, industry professionals (TV and live) and punter judges. The scouts are previous members of the panel.

For further information on the judging process, please visit: comedyawards.co.uk/how-the-awards-are-judged.

How to enter

The competition is the most successful of its kind in the UK and attracts over 500 applicants each year. Entrants must not have performed more than 15 stand-up spots (including open spots and virtual performances to live audiences) or gigged before 01 June 2021, and must be unsigned from any comedy agent or management company. For a full list of rules, please visit soyouthinkyourefunny.co.uk/essential-info.

Each competitor is given seven minutes to win over the judges; at the end of each heat a winner is announced and given a place in the Grand Final: a two-and-a-half-hour top bill of new comic talent. The winner will receive a cash prize, a run as part of Gilded Balloon's Fringe programme, paid performance slots at Latitude Festival, Glee Birmingham and the Boat Show in London, plus a complimentary headshot shoot by professional photographer to the stars Steve Ullathorne, and a complimentary filmed copy and professional photographs of their spot from the final to use in their show-reel.

As well as this, they will also win mentorship from Karen Koren and the So You Think You're Funny team, who are all committed to nurturing young comic talent with personal support and touring opportunities in the year following the Grand Final.

Previous So You Think You're Funny Award winners include Dylan Moran, Peter Kay, Lee Mack and Tommy Tiernan. Finalists include Johnny Vegas, Sarah Millican, Kevin Bridges, Rhod Gilbert, Rob Beckett, Russell Howard, Romesh Ranganathan, Jason Byrne, Lucy Porter, Mark Watson, Maisie Adam and Russell Kane.

For more information please visit soyouthinkyourefunny.co.uk/essential-info.