Nichol's show triumphs in Edinburgh

Phil Nichol has won Edinburgh's top comedy award for his show The Naked Racist.

The Canadian scooped the £8,000 if.comeddie award, the new name for the Perrier, ahead of fellow nominees David O'Doherty, Paul Sinha (Review), Russell Howard and We Are Klang (Review) .

He had previously been nominated for the Perrier in 2002, for his show Things I Like, I Lick.

Ironically, his show was on at The Stand, Edinburgh's only permanent comedy club, whose owner Tommy Shepherd has long been an outspoken critic of comedy awards for making art competitive.

Best Newcomer went to Josie Long for her Cafe Royal show, Kindness and Exuberance.

The 24-year-old Oxford graduate was last year named Chortle's best newcomer and receives £4,000 from the Eddies.

The other nominees were Fat Tongue (Review), God's Pottery: Concert for La Vert (Review), Andrew Lawrence: How To Butcher Your Loved Ones (Review) and Russell Kane's Theory of Pretension (Review)

The first Panel Prize, presented to a comedian who best captures the spirit of the fringe, was won, as widely predicted, by Mark Watson for 'his continuing invention and exploration of the extraordinay opportunities that only the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can offer'.

His citation said: 'Not only did he perform his own extremely funny show, he staged a 36 -hour stand up marathon without landing in hospital (as he did last year) and held small audience workshops where he developed a novel with the audience, writing a chapter after every event. Mark's constant comic creativity has undoubtedly captured the comedy spirit of the 2006 Festival.'

Watson, 26, was nominated for Perrier best newcomer award last year and wins £4,000

Awards producer Nica Burns said: "In a great year for stand up a large round of applause for Phil Nichol, a regular, flamboyant comedy character on the Fringe who blew everybody away with an outstanding show.

The winner and nominees will be performing at the Assembly Hall on the Mound on Sunday and and Monday at 8.15pm.

This year’s judges were Sunday Times comedy critic  Stephen Armstrong, who chairs the panel, Times comedy reviewer, Dominic Maxwell, Rory Weller from Metro newspaper, Paramount Comedy Channel’s Sarah Mahoney, BBC Radio producer Victoria Lloyd, Leciester Comedy Festival director Geoff Rowe and public representatives Helen Heggie, Matthew Swynnerthon and Samantha Terry.

Published: 26 Aug 2006