25 years of finding new talent

Leicester Comedy Festival celebrates its comedians of the year

The Leicester Comedy Festival will unveil its 2019 programme on Thursday, including a show celebrating 25 years of its Comedian of the Year competition.

The show is to be headlined by previous winners Romesh Ranganathan and Josh Widdicombe and will take place at De Montfort Hall on February 19.

Sponsored by the Leicester Mercury the title was first won by Stevie Knuckles in 1995, who promptly disappeared from the comedy scene without trace, with festival organisers failing to track him down in later years.

More successful winners have included Johnny Vegas, Seann Walsh, Jason Manford and Rhod Gilbert.

The competition is unique in that comedians are not able to enter themselves, they have to be proposed by a British comedy promoter.

Tickets for the anniversary show, a fundraiser show for both the festival and the charity which produces it, Big Difference Company, go on sale on Thursday along with other festival shows. Next year’s Comedian of the Year competition will take place on February 23

Here’s a full list of previous winners:

1995: Stevie Knuckles

1996: Jo Enright

1997: Johnny Vegas

1998: Mitch Benn

1999: Patrick Kitterick (now a Leicester city councillor)

2000: Jason Manford

2001: Miles Jupp

2002: Matt Blaize

2003: Rhod Gilbert

2004: Matt Hollins

2005: Debra Jane Appleby