Meet the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent acts

The Birmingham Comedy Festival has revealed the five comedians who will compete for its annual Breaking Talent Award.

They are Alex Black, Rob Kemp, Gemma Layton, Eric Rushton and Kai Samra.

Having grown up in Huddersfield, Alex Black moved to the Midlands as a student and now resides in Hollywood, south Birmingham. He's been doing stand-up for two years and says: I’m a musical comedian, telling stories about losing my youth set to the soundtrack of my long-gone teens," he says.

Wednesbury-based examinations officer Rob Kemp, pictured, started his stand-up journey nearly six years ago. His second one-man show, The Elvis Dead, mashed-up horror flick Evil Dead 2 and the hits of Elvis Presley, to become a runaway cult hit at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

A former member of sketch group Funbags Comedy, Gemma Layton is a character comedian who has been nominated for her Black Country cabaret singer Beverley Vegas. She cites The League Of Gentlemen, Victoria Wood, Julia Walters, Julia Davis and Steve Coogan as inspirations.

Eric Rushton hails from Stone, Staffordshire, and made his stand-up debut with Warwick Comedy Society during his first year at the University Of Warwick and reached the finals of the Chortle Student Comedy Award 2016 and So You Think You're Funny? in 2017. My material is quite self-deprecating and depressing, with a little a bit of silliness to compensate for all the moaning,’ he says.

Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, Kai Samra grew up in Leamington Spa, Though he only started stand-up in 2016, he's already opened for such acts as Paul Chowdhry. Samra describes himself as ‘an observational comic who tackles issues such as class, race and modern culture from a fresh perspective’.

The five acts were nominated by a panel of comedy professionals based on live performances over the previous year.

A spokesperson for Birmingham Comedy Festival said: "'he award features some of the very best talent from across the West Midlands, acts who are either in the early stages of their careers and show real promise, or who've seriously upped their game during the last 12 months.’

The competition takes place at the Glee Club on Friday October 6 and officially kicks off the ten-day Birmingham Comedy Festival.

Venue boss Mark Tughan said: ‘The calibre of talent coming through in the last few years has been exceptional, and this year looks like another step up, both in quality and diversity of acts.’

Published: 5 Sep 2017