Birmingham Comedy Fest announcing its Breaking Talent shortlist

The Birmingham Comedy Festival has announced the five finalists in its Breaking Talent Award for West Midlands acts.

All will take part in a showcase to find the winner at the Glee Club on Friday October 5, kicking off the ten-day festival.

The nominated acts are Adam Beardsmore, Phil Carr, double-act Good Kids, Laura Monmoth, and Sham Zaman.

Originally from Staffordshire, Adam Beardsmore now lives and works in Stratford-upon-Avon, An animation editor by day, he made his stand-up debut in 2017 after a friend signed him up for an open mic night, and took part in this year’s BBC New Comedy Award 2018. 

Self-employed marketing consultant Phil Carr also made his stand-up debut in 2017. Stoke born and bred, he describes his comedy style as simply ‘short dark jokes.’

Kieran Ahern and Tom Dowling, aka Good Kids, met in the playground at the age of four and started writing at university. They are both teachers based in the Birmingham suburb of Hall Green. Tom says: ‘The stories we tell and characters we play are based on the real humour of people we’ve known growing up.’

Born in Birmingham and now residing in West Bromwich, Laura Monmoth has been performing for nearly five years. She performed her debut show, LGBTQZX – about the links between being transgender and retro computer games – at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

NHS worker Sham Zaman lives in Alum Rock, Birmingham. Two years on from his debut, he recently participated in the Muslim Kings Of Comedy tour. He describes his stand-up as a ‘mixture of observational comedy with witty one-liners and audience interaction.’

The five acts were nominated by a panel of comedy professionals based on live performances over the last 12 months.

Published: 10 Sep 2018