Which are the best comedy venues of 2022?

First Chortle Award winners announced

Today we can reveal the winners of the venue categories of the Chortle Awards.

The announcement comes ahead of the presentation of the performance and media categories at a ceremony in London tomorrow night, hosted by Paul Sinha and Felicity Ward.

All our winners were chosen after almost 10,000 Chortle readers voted in the polls.

The victors in the venue categories are:

BEST COMEDY VENUE
Winner: Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool
Runner-up: 99 Club Leicester Square, London

BEST PRO COMEDY NIGHT
Winner: 99 Club at Browns, Central London
Runner-up: Always Be Comedy, Kennington, South London

BEST OPEN SPOT COMEDY NIGHT
Winner: Beat The Frog, Frog & Bucket, Manchester
Runner-up: Little Smash Comedy at The Alex in Southend, Essex

BEST LIVE COMEDY FORMAT

Winner: Quantum Leopard, a ‘no-kicking down, gender-balanced’ night at 2Northdown in Central London.
Runner-up: Bent Double, LGBTQ+ friendly night in Brighton

The nominees in the categories to be announced tomorrow are

Best newcomer, sponsored by Audible

Celya AB
Dan Tiernan
Dee Allum
Liam Farrelly
Omar Badawy

Breakthrough act, sponsored by Audible

Amy Gledhill
Helen Bauer
Liz Kingsman
Maisie Adam
Ria Lina

Variety act

Jazz Emu
Just These Please
Paul Currie
Flo & Joan

Club comedian

Jeff Innocent
Scott Bennett
Adam Rowe
Daliso Chaponda

Best compere

Jay Lafferty
Jen Brister
Mick Ferry
Thanyia Moore
Zoe Lyons

Best show

Alfie Brown: Sensitive Man
Kiri Pritchard-McLean Home Truths
Liz Kingsman: One Woman Show
Mark Watson: This Can't Be It
Paul Sinha: Hazy Little Thing Called Love

Best tour

Alan Carr: Regional Trinket
Bill Bailey: Summer Larks
Jonathan Pie: Fake News
Simon Amstell: Spirit Hole

Best podcast, sponsored by Sue Terry Voices

Have A Word
Nobody Panic
Off Menu
Adam Buxton
RHLSTP with Richard Herring

Social media award

Alistair Beckett-King
Alistair Green
Parody Boris Johnson Twitter account
Rosie Holt

Book award

And Away by Bob Mortimer
Cack-Handed, by Gina Yashere
He Used Thought As A Wife by Tim Key
Sidesplitter by Phil Wang

Radio award

Jordan Brookes On
Mark Steel's In Town
It’s A Fair Cop with Alfie Moore
The News Quiz
Olga Koch: OK Computer

TV award

Alma’s Not Normal
Bo Burnham: Inside
Ghosts
Inside No 9
Motherland