*****2022 Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize Winners*****

Best in Class is a crowd funded profit sharing show that champions the rich talent of working class comedians.

Sponsored by waste grounds, knock off trainers, spam, weed, the unions, crap schools, bunking off, failed MOT’s, failed GCSE’s, bus stops, pay day loans, fierce mums, tired dads and empowerment.

August 22, 2023    Broadway World

Founded by Sian Davies in 2018 after she was dropped by an Edinburgh Fringe promoter for having to crowdfund the £1800 audition fee, Best in Class seeks to promote the working-class voices that have historically been kept out of the comedy scene by extortionate costs (and, at times, exclusionary attitudes).

Scores of hopeful comedians auditioned to make the 2023 roster but only a handful were selected; crucially, none of them paid a fee to participate.

Best in Class is wonderfully funny and a true celebration of working-class comedy in the UK and seeks to do just that.... Click Here For Review

August 14, 2023    The Wee Review

The brilliant Best in Class initiative was founded by Sian Davies in 2018 as a means of combatting the systemic difficulties facing working class acts trying to break into the industry. Working on a crowd-funding basis, Davies and her team have set up a yearly revolving line-up (Pandemic permitting) of acts to take to the Fringe – the apotheosis of this inequality – as a showcase. Previous acts have included Tom Mayhew, Lindsey Santoro, Jordan Grey, and Tamsyn Kelly. This evening sees three of the class of 2023 take to the stage, and providing a very fine show.... Click Here For Review

February 10, 2023   British Comedy Guide

Best in Class 2023 Line up announced

The line-up for Best In Class, the award-winning profit sharing show that champions working class comedians, has been revealed.

Here are the biographies of the comedians taking part this year.

Leroy Brito

Leroy Brito
A breakout star from Wales, Leroy is a regular on the UK comedy circuit and has had 4 sold out solo shows at the iconic Wales Millennium Centre. Leroy has previously starred in the BBC One sitcom Tourist Trap, is a regular on BBC Radio Wales and has presented on 6 Nations Sin Bin, Wales Big Kickoff and Wales Live. In demand as a writer, Leroy co-wrote a BBC Radio Wales sitcom, was a writer on Late Night Football Club and has recently written episodes for television and radio on the award winning Cbeebies preschool show JoJo & Gran Gran.

Ashley Gorman

Ashley Gorman
Ashley Gorman is a comedian and writer born and bred in Burnt Oak, North West London. He recently emigrated to Forest Hill in South East London to become a pub landlord. Ashley is an exceptional storyteller who mines his own life for comedy gold. His anecdotes of outlandish misadventures leave audiences in hysterics.

Lee Hudson

Lee Hudson
Lee's brand of personal storytelling and self-deprecation has seen his reputation rise on the UK comedy circuit and beyond, having also performed in the US, Canada and around Europe. He's opened for Dan Soder and Tom Stade and is part of the Ian Edwards Soccer Comic Rant podcast on Bill Burr's All Things Comedy network.

Dani Johns

Dani Johns
Born and bred Bristolian Dani Johns is described as a "smart, clever pocket rocket of a comedian" whose "sassy delivery captivates every audience member". With an energetic mix of storytelling and serious over sharing, she's been named as one of the best new comics on the scene and is taking the circuit by storm.

Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell
Katie Mitchell is a queer working class comic who grew up on a council estate and began comedy in sixth form in 2016. She is alternative yet pervasive, revelling in main-stream comedy environments where her infectious, joyful and silly work is a delight on any line-up.

Jen Nolan

Jen Nolan
Jen Nolan is a working class comedian and won't let you forget it! Telling (not so tall) tales of life growing up on the breadline, she has been told she is one to watch, even if that was by her Nan with dementia.

Jacob Nussey

Jacob Nussey
Jacob Nussey unassumingly draws in audiences with his deadpan style, sharp jokes, and ill-fated anecdotes with clever punchlines. Jacob won West Didsbury Comedy Festival New Act of the Year and was a finalist of Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year in 2022. After reaching the semi-finals of British Comedian of the Year and semi-finals of So You Think You're Funny in 2021. Jacob has been named by Chortle as one to watch for 2023. He's seriously funny and well worth seeing in person!

Katie Tracey

Katie Tracey
Kate has been performing stand-up across the UK for over a decade. Her down to earth observations and cheeky humour has made her a favourite with audiences and acts alike. Katie aims to challenge people's perception of middle aged working class women, with her infectious charm and razor sharp wit.

The Best In Class scheme was started by stand-up Sian Davies in 2018 after she had become "fed up with class, money and social status being used as a barrier to performing".

Alumni from the scheme include Tom Mayhew, Lindsey Santoro, Jamie Hutchinson, Tamsyn Kelly and Jordan Gray.


Sian Davies
Best In Class has grown in tandem alongside Davies' comedy career, and she will now take more of a behind-the-scenes role in the showcase. She explains: "I used to MC the show daily during the fringe. But now I have my own solo shows to concentrate on, I'm happy to hand the show over to the squad. They are a talented bunch who I know will have everything covered. I'll be around if they need me, but Best In Class is about the acts having ownership of their show."

The 2023 Best In Class season starts with a showcase at Leicester Comedy Festival this Saturday (11th February), before heading to VAULT Festival (18th March), Brighton Fringe (5th May) and London's Soho Theatre (18th April), before a run at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Donations to the 2023 campaign can be made via GoFundMe Click Here For Article

August 17, 2022   The Guardian

Edinburgh festival’s funniest performers for 2022 are revealed

Both of the top prizes for being funny at the 2022 Edinburgh fringe festival have gone to foreign talent. The Australian comedian Sam Campbell is the winner of Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, the prestigious competition that celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer.

Campbell, 30, from Queensland, is the fifth winner of the best show award to come from Australia, overtaking winners from Ireland, who have scooped the prize four times.

And this year’s Edinburgh newcomer award went to Mexican-born American Lara Ricote, for her show GRL/LATNX/DEF. “You are being so nice to me. This is crazy!” said the 25-year-old, who has impaired hearing and talks about her disability on stage.


Ricote’s show tackles her “multiple minority status”, as well as the fact hers are not all visible categories. “Being a minority is very in now,” she joked after winning her award. “I’m a girl, young, a Latina and have a disability, so I tick a lot of boxes. But I have to be very vocal about the minorities I’m in. I’m in an interesting place and in a very privileged place.” Ricote also won the funny women award for stage performers last year.

The show that earned Campbell the £10,000 main prize is the more simply titled Comedy Show. “I deserve the award and I was expecting it,” he told the crowd, before correcting himself. “No. It was a big surprise. It’s insane.” The comedian added that he was going to use the prize money “to be taller”.

Campbell’s midnight show, which ran only for the second half of the festival, came with a special “warning” from the comic: “I want to be a worldwide performer. I hope you do not mind but this show will pretty much just involve me going up there and being nice.”

A former award winner at the Melbourne international comedy festival, Campbell beat nine other fringe contenders, including Alfie Brown, son of Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens, Seann Walsh, the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant, and Jordan Gray, the competition’s first transgender nominee.

Lara Ricote receives her award
Lara Ricote, who has impaired hearing and talks about her disability on stage, receives her award in Edinburgh yesterday. Photograph: Euan Cherry/Getty Images

Among those applauding the judges’ verdicts was Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright, who tweeted how much he enjoyed Ricote’s festival show. Campbell, he added later, is a “total lunatic”.

The support organisation Best in Class, which helps performers from working-class backgrounds, won the prize for spirit of the fringe, an award that is not made every year. Pointing out the difficulty of funding a fringe show, Sian Davies, who runs the organisation, said: “People can’t afford to live at the minute, let alone come up here. Best in Class is a sticking plaster at best. The fringe is full of systematic bias.”

Her message met with approval from Campbell, who said: “It’s fucked when people can’t afford to do this. I’m not an expert, but for anyone who loses money here, that stinks.”

Davies explained that in 2018 she had been asked to audition for a fringe showcase. When she succeeded she was told she would need to pay £1,800 to secure her place.

“When I tell people this, they roll their eyes. They can’t believe it,” said Davies. She was dropped by her promoter as a result, despite her friends’ efforts to raise the money. At first she said she “got angry”, then decided to bring up her own showcase for working-class comics. “I don’t charge anyone for the privilege of coming and they’re paid,” she added. “When you give us a seat at your table, we can do this.”

Saturday’s ceremony in the city’s Dovecot Studios art gallery was introduced by the award’s producer, Nica Burns, who argued the festival doors were “open to all” and said: “Together we have built the best comedy industry in the world. Our doors are open to everyone. All they need to be is super-talented and, above all, funny.”

This year the panel for the award, formerly known as “the Perrier” and now sponsored by the comedy TV channel Dave, was chaired by Sky Studios comedy producer Adnan Ahmed, and included Dave’s channel director, Cherie Cunningham, and Channel 4’s commissioning executive, Joe Hullait Click Here For Article