Elf Lyons wins Comedians Choice 2024 award

Ian Lockwood best newcomer, Alex Petty best person

Elf Lyons’s show Horses has been voted the best at the Edinburgh Fringe by fellow comics.

She won the main prize at the Comedians’ Choice Awards last night, with Ian Lockwood winning best newcomer.

The award for ‘best person’ was awarded for a second time to Alex Petty, co-founder and director of the Laughing Horse Free Festival.

Lyons, who is performing at the Pleasance, said: ‘It is the greatest honour when other artists see your work, and support one another’s work. I feel like I've won the Fringe!’

Lockwood with comedians choice trophy

And Lockwood, above, whose show The Farewell Tour is on at Underbelly Bristo Square, said: ‘Everyone I've met at the Fringe has been incredibly kind and welcoming. I've never won anything in my entire life and to receive this from my peers is incredibly touching.’

Lyons and Lockwood each receive a £930 prize – a figure that represents the average cost paid by comedians for accommodation at the festival. On average, comics voting in the awards paid £62 a night and stayed for 15 nights.

The prizes were funded by Angel Comedy and The Museum of Comedy. Angel Comedy’s Barry Ferns said: ‘On this, the 10th year of the Comedians' Choice Awards, it feels fitting that for one winner it was their first Fringe and the other winner it was their 14th - in some ways it shows that it’s a very long game and I’m sure all of the performers that were nominated will, at some point, go on to win an award somewhere. Tonight, it was Elf and Ian.’

The full list of nominees in The Comedians’ Choice Awards 2024 – which are administered by the British Comedy Guide – were:

BEST SHOW

Chelsea Birkby: This is Life, Cheeky Cheeky
Elf Lyons: Horses
Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble
Jordan Brookes: Fontanelle
Mike Rice: Nasty Character
Natalie Palamides: WEER
Phil Ellis: Come On and Take The Rest of Me
Rob Copland: Gimme (One With Everything)
Sarah Keyworth: My Eyes Are Up Here
Sid Singh: American Coloniser

BEST NEWCOMER

Abby Wambaugh
Caitriona Dowden
Cobin Millage
Hannah Platt
Ian Lockwood
Joe Kent-Walters
Jin Hao Li
Nate Kitch
Paulina Lenoir

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Published: 20 Aug 2024