Says Edinburgh awards maestro Nica Burns

Comedy deserves more recognition for the contribution it has made to culture.

That was the plea made by Nica Burns, producer of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, at a lunch for industry ‘movers and shakers’ on the first official day of this year’s Fringe.

She gave a potted history of the festival, which started 70 years ago when several theatre companies that were not invited to the curated Edinburgh International Festival, ‘said "fuck you, we’re coming anyway"… and that’s the spirit of the Fringe.’

Comedy became a prominent part of the programme on the back of the alternative comedy movement that kicked off in 1979, based on an ethos of ‘tolerance and acceptance’, Burns added. ‘The young responded and pushed the old comics off the stages and off the TV screens.’

But it was the Fringe that gave comedians ‘the gift of long shows to speak in depth about serious topics’.

Burns, a West End producer and theatre owner who set up the award once known as the Perrier in 1981, said that stand-ups had been at the vanguard of social issues, latterly talking about feminism, sexual identity, racism and mental health, helping to bring the conversations into the mainstream.

‘We have a great deal to be proud of in terms of what comedians and the comedy industry has contributed to societal change – and we can keep doing it,’ she said.

And she pointed to how comedians had moved into other genres, such as Tim Minchin writing Matilda and Groundhog Day, Laura Solon becoming a Hollywood screenwriter and David Walliams becoming a children’s author.

‘Comedy isn’t given the status film, theatre or dance is given,’ she said. ‘Why?  It's about time people took the contribution of comedians more seriously to our culture and internationally.’

The shortlists for this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, again sponsored by lastminute.com, will be announced on Wednesday August 23, with the winners named on the following Saturday.

Published: 6 Aug 2017