Comic secures a place on our bursary scheme

Shalaka Kurup has joined the ranks of this year’s Chortle Hotshots, tipped for good things at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

She takes a spot that came available after Vinny Shui, who had secured a place following a London showcase, decided to delay his festival debut by a year.

Kurup was previously a finalist in Channel 4’s Sean Lock award, won West End New Act of the Year and was runner-up in the Brighton Komedia new act of the year.

She said: ‘Thank you so much for this. Doing the Fringe this year is a huge risk for me, financially, and I'm so grateful to have the help from Chortle Hotshots with my debut hour’.

Her Fringe show – Get a Grip – will be in the prestigious Pleasance Attic at a prime 8.30pm slot. It revolves her getting a mental health diagnosis ‘in a desperate need for attention’ and trying to convince her therapist there’s something wrong.

Here she is in action at our showcase:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q4qsShqTqoQ?si=gX6JGrxB4G3-oxSJ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Chortle's other Hotshots and their shows are:

Alex Stringer: Happy Hour at Pleasance, Bunker Three, 6pm
Dean Coughlin: Oblivion Sausage at Just the Tonic at The Subway, 5,50pm
Jessie Nixon: Don’t Make Me Regret This at Assembly George Square, The Crate, 7.20pm
Liam Tulley: Baldilocks  at Just the Tonic at The Mash House, 3.30pm 

They all have their Fringe registration fee paid and a package of advertising and other assistance from Chortle.

Stringer and Coughlin are staging a joint work in progress show at Grub in Manchester on May 16. Tickets.

Published: 21 Mar 2025