And Ariel Hebditch best newcomer at the Women in Comedy Festival

Laura Lexx’s Slinky was named best show at the Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester last night.

The comic suffered for her art during her gig, as she bruised her leg getting on to the stage   for the second half of her tour show at the Frog & Bucket – having previously told the audience she ripped her jeans at the same venue on a previous visit.

She tweeted: ‘Just found out it was fully worth shredding my trousers and bruising my leg because the show won an award that night. So thank you Manchester! What a blast!’

Ariel Hebditch won the best newcomer accolade for her debut Skeleton Out Of The Closet.

The Cambridge student describes herself as an ‘asexual goth’ whose show is a ‘whistle-stop tour through her own personal haunted house’.

She posted on Instagram: ‘It's truly such an honour to receive this incredible award, I'm still processing it all to be honest, what a whirlwind! Just to perform in the Women in Comedy Festival was a huge honour, and so to be recognised like this amongst 80-odd other fantastic performers is just mind-blowing. It's more than I ever expected and I'm just over the moon.

'I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am. I'm so blown away by having this huge honour so early in my career, I feel like I've been on the verge of tears since last night and I don't even know which was is up any more!'

Also nominated for best show were Grace Mulvey for Tall Baby; Alex Stinger for Happy Hour and Bella Humphries for Square Peg.

While the other newcomer nominees were Molly McGuinness for Slob; Zana Fejzic for Chameleon and Caitriona Dowden for Divine Comedy

The awards - the first to be given out in the festival’s 13-year history – were sponsored by Jason Manford and his Manford’s Comedy Clubs. The winners will receive cash prizes of £500 each.

The festival ran for the past ten days with nearly 80 shows spread across Manchester venues.

Lexx on stage at the Frog & Bucket:

Published: 14 Oct 2024