Contest reaches its last stage

The last five finalists in the Chortle Student Comedy Awards have been named following an impressive semi-final in London.

Dalia Malek, David Elms, Hari Sriskantha, Kwame Asante and Pierre Novellie will now take their place in the Edinburgh final.

The competition, powered by The Sims 3, has a £2,500 first prize and the final takes place in Pleasance One, at 10.30pm on August 13. Tickets have already gone on sale – click here.

The full list of finalists is:

Adam Mitchell: An Edinburgh university history student from Chester who describes his style as ‘silly stuff, told in a deadpan fashion’. He will be celebrating his 22nd birthday on the day of the final.

Dalia Malek: A PhD law student at King's College London. Malek had never performed a stand-up gig before entering the Chortle award, her only experience being though a comedy course. Originally from California, she performs ‘a deadpan delivery of exaggerated, vulgar observations’.

David Elms: Elms, who studies linguistics, was a semi-finalist in the Chortle Student Comedy Award last year, when he was also named Edinburgh University Stand-up of the year. A member of improv team The Improverts, his solo set comprises a mix of musical comedy and one-liners.

Hari Sriskantha: The third Edinburgh University student to make it to the final, Sriskantha, 24, has a set that combines his physics background with the common tropes of stand-up.

Johnny F Monotone: The creation of York student Sebastian Bloomfield, who has been performing on the circuit in the north of England for the past four years. He says his influences include Andy Kaufman, Jack Dee and Dylan Moran.

Johnny Pelham : Originally from Bradford, Pelham’s routine is based on his appearance and on his experiences of being a white middle-class kid at a predominantly Asian working-class school. He is now studying politics and sociology at Newcastle University.

Kwame Asante : A third-year medicine student at UCL, originally from Beckenham in Kent, Asante was runner-up in the Loaded LAFTAs Search for a Star competition last year, and a finalist in the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year the year before that.

Pierre Novellie: South-African born Novellie has a ‘surreal and observational set’ and vows: ‘I will be going into the world of stand-up after graduating no matter what.’ The 21-year-old is in his third year of studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge.

Published: 22 May 2012