Jack Dearnley triumphs in Manchester

Jack Dearnley won the first semi-final of the Chortle Student Comedy Award in Manchester last night.

The 21-year-old, from Nottingham, is in the third year of a comedy writing and performance degree at  Salford University.

He will now go through to the final at the Edinburgh Fringe in August – as well as playing the comedy arena at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk on July 21-24.

The ultimate winner will receive a trip to Australia to perform stand-up there, thanks to the generous support of the Comedy Lounge in Perth.

Our second semi-final is at the Head Of Steam in Cardiff tomorrow (tickets), followed by the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Thursday and Sunday (tickets for both), and Edinburgh’s Monkey Barrel next Monday (tickets).

Last night's other semi-finalists were Andrew Shires, Devajit Das, Silham Shahzad, Claire Bounds, Righteous Lion, Lottie Blacklock, Andy Lloyd, Jo Sarginson, Emerson Young, Dom Hatton-Woods
and Shawn Uyosa.

Here is an extract from Jack's set:

After all the heats, a further five wildcards will be selected to go through to the final.

Published: 21 Mar 2022