Scouts’ honour
As the lastminute.com Edinburgh Comedy Awards announces its shortlist, Claire Smith shares nine key things she has learned as one of last year’s judges
It’s not a fix. Every year there are conspiracy theories about what the Edinburgh Comedy Awards panel members are looking for. You need to be a thin white male wearing tight trousers. It’s all about clowning this year. They need to give the award to a woman. The big PR people and the big producers already have the whole thing sewn up. Everyone in the industry already knows who is going to win.
It’s not true. It is simply about looking for the best, funniest and most exciting show of the year. Nobody knows in advance what that is going to be. That is what is so great about it. It’s fun but exhausting. Last year I saw 116 shows, 11 of them twice. Just because you are on the comedy awards panel doesn’t mean you will only see the creme de la creme. But it does mean you will see all the outstanding comedy shows, some of them more than once.
It gives you a real appreciation of the quality and the range of comedy in Edinburgh. Watching shows twice is fascinating – sometimes you lose something because you know where the laughs are coming, other times they make you laugh more second time around. You learn a lot. It is incredibly thorough. The lastminute.com Edinburgh Comedy Awards has a team of incredibly hard working scouts who see all the eligible shows. This year there are 12 scouts, all ex-members of the panel. To be eligible, a show has to be listed in the comedy or cabaret section of the Fringe programme, to be the performer’s own work and to be at least 50 minutes long.
This year there are 700 eligible shows – which will all be seen by at least one of the scouts. Based on their recommendations, panel members will then be sent to see as many promising shows as possible.
At the first panel meeting every single eligible show is considered, one by one, and a secret long list is drawn up. After as many panel members as possible have seen each show, the shortlist is decided and announced. Comedy is subjective. This may seem blindingly obvious but it is surprising to discover just how differently people can respond to the same show. Reviewing can be a solitary pursuit, in which avoiding other people’s opinions is often a good idea.
So it is astonishing and interesting to realise you can absolutely love something and another person can think it is the most terrible thing they have ever seen. I loved being locked in a room with a load of comedy enthusiasts having a heated debate about what works and what doesn’t.
It made me learn much more about my own peculiar taste in comedy and to understand other people have different views which are also valid. It also turns out I’m much more opinionated than I realised. It is a huge feat of organisation. Comedy awards producer Emma Brunjes is probably the only person in town who has memorised the entire comedy section of the Fringe Programme.
By the end of the festival she will have sent requests for more than 2,000 tickets. A lawyer sits in on every panel meeting to make