I was sacked from a Jobcentre… but the joke was on me
IT may not be the first place a stand-up might turn to for comic inspiration.
But a joke about the irony of being fired from a Jobcentre was yesterday named the funniest of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
adam rowe won the 11th annual award with the line: ‘Working at the Jobcentre has to be a tense job – knowing that if you get fired, you still have to come in the next day.’
The gag, from rowe’s show Undeniable, won with 41 per cent of a public vote on a shortlist picked by comedy critics for television channel Dave.
It beat Leo kearse’s effort: ‘I had a job drilling holes for water – it was well boring.’
Former bartender rowe began doing stand-up in 2010 and has previously been crowned Liverpool Comedian of the Year.
He said of his latest success: ‘I thought my agent was lying. He rang me and told me I couldn’t tell anyone for a week – which has been almost impossible.
‘I’m massively taken aback by it. I’ve never seen myself as being in the running for things like this.
‘It’s my favourite joke in the show, as it ends the bit I’m most passionate about; trying to dispel a few myths of what it’s like to be brought up on benefits.’
He added: ‘It’s such a huge honour. I really never expected to be in with a shout of winning things like this, so it’s just a massive but lovely surprise.’
Explaining how he came up with the line, rowe said: ‘I actually wrote it when I was on stage when I was hosting a gig in Liverpool.
‘It was a bit of crowd work that stayed with me. I was doing the usual compering thing, asking people what they do for a living.
‘a guy said he worked in the Jobcentre and I said the joke that has now won the award. Because it got such a nice reaction on the night, I thought I had to do something with it as a line.’
Other quips in the ten-strong shortlist – which was voted on by 2,000 people – poked fun at subjects including Donald Trump, Brexit, exorcism and vegans.
The award is open to established and up-and-coming comedians and aims to celebrate the skill of writing a witty one-liner.
To ensure there is no bias towards well-known or favourite comedians during the public vote, the jokes are listed with no reference to the comics who wrote and performed them, which means they are purely judged on the humour of the jokes themselves.
Dave director Luke Hales said: ‘This year the news agenda and everyday British idiosyncrasies have provided some wonderful opportunities for comedians to use their creative and comic genius in giving us all a giggle.
‘as ever, we have enjoyed some quite brilliant one-liners and are delighted to crown adam rowe as the recipient of this year’s Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe award.’
ken Cheng won last year’s award with a gag about the recently redesigned £1 coin: ‘I’m not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.’
It came from his show ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian and won 33 per cent of the vote.
Previous winners of the award include Tim Vine, Stewart Francis and Zoe Lyons.