Australian comic wins top Edinburgh Fringe prize
AUSTRALIAN comic Sam Campbell has won the top prize for his show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
After a “truly outstanding” year, judges at Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards announced Campbell as their best comedy show winner.
The honour, now in its 40th year and formerly known as the Perrier Award, will see the Australian collect £10,000 in prize money.
Campbell was presented with his award by Jordan Brookes, who won the prize the last time the awards were presented in 2019, and fourtime nominee Russell Kane, who won the
30th anniversary award for best comedy show in 2010.
Lara Ricote, a hardof-hearing Mexicanborn performer who was brought up in the US, was awarded a £5,000 prize after being named best newcomer.
The prestigious awards, sponsored by the TV channel Dave, also awarded a panel prize of £5,000 to Best in Class, a crowdfunded, profit-sharing initiative that helped workingclass comedians from across the UK to perform at this year’s Fringe.
Nica Burns, director of Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said it had been a “truly outstanding international year”. Speaking about
Campbell, the sixth Australian to win the award, she said his show was “original, sometimes surreal” and was full of jokes which were “often unexpected”.
She added: “He changes gear throughout and takes his audience on a journey of laughter.”
Of the awards overall, she said: “We’ve had the widest representation from across the whole country, from Scotland to Sussex and everywhere in between.”
Cherie Cunningham, channel director at Dave, said: “We look forward to seeing Lara and Sam on Dave.”