78-696: The Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards , and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland . Established in 1981, they are the most prestigious comedy prize in the United Kingdom . The awards have been directed and produced by Nica Burns since 1984. The main prize, which
156-500: A 700-seat marquee auditorium, which hosted, among other things, opera, even though the organisers had been told it was no such place for the artform. The venue also took over the nearby Heriot-Watt Students' Association and the Little Lyceum. In total, it hosted 38 companies. The next year it became a "tented village", with several smaller tents. Malcolm Hardee made his debut here as part of The Greatest Show On Legs . In 1982
234-546: A comedy venue in the former J. & R. Allan's department store on Cowgate . A 3am late licence made it a home for late-night socialising for comedians, and the raucous late-night show Late 'n' Live was started there. In 1988, the Society moved from 170 High Street to expanded headquarters at 158–166 High Street on the Royal Mile , with an extension leading back towards the former Wireworks Building. The basement became
312-564: A feeling that "smaller venues may lose out, but this case may be overstated... The episode of the super-venues, the Assembly Rooms in particular, has some way to go yet". Student shows continued to thrive with the National Student Theatre Company, National Youth Music Theatre, Cambridge Mummers, Oxford Theatre Group and Bradford University producing well-received new work. Among professional companies,
390-664: A journey of self-discovery. The Change was produced by Lisa Mitchell and executive-produced by Christie, Nerys Evans and Morwenna Gordon. Work for BBC Radio 4 and others includes Andy Zaltzman 's History of the Third Millennium , Miranda Hart 's House Party , It's Your Round , Sarah Millican 's Support Group , The Fred MacAulay Show , Dan Tetsell 's The 21st Century for Time Travellers , The Now Show , Kerry ’s List , It's Not What You Know , Dilemma , French and Saunders ' Christmas Show , and The Casebook of Max and Ivan . In 2019 she became curator of
468-469: A lack of venues, but just as that limit seemed to be being reached, groups began to find more efficient ways of sharing spaces. Venues could be fully utilised from 10am to 2am, with up to seven different groups throughout the day. The sharing led to the rise of bigger, more centralised venues. Rents increased too, with a venue like Heriot-Watt Students' Union doubling their rent in three years. In 1986, promoter Karen Koren established The Gilded Balloon as
546-508: A new all-year-round multi-arts festival venue, containing ten performance spaces, opened in the former Royal (Dick) Veterinary School under the name Summerhall . Bridget Christie Bridget Louise Christie (born 17 August 1971) is a BAFTA and RTS nominated English stand-up comedian, actress and writer. She has written and performed comedy tours, in addition to radio and television work. Christie grew up in Gloucester , England,
624-940: A new level as she deconstructs a yoghurt ad, tries to find an icon who doesn't replace the word 'feminism' with 'bootylicious', and reveals the consequences of wearing an 'End FGM' badge on a TV show. A Christmas Special, ' Bridget Christie's Christmas List ' foilowed the second series in 2015. Christie has been guest on the podcasts Danielle Ward 's Do The Right Thing , Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast , Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown , Jarlath Regan 's An Irishman Abroad , Stuart Goldsmith ’s The Comedian’s Comedian , The Adam Buxton Podcast , The Penguin Podcast with Richard E. Grant , Literary Death Match , Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster , and Spotify podcast We Need to Talk About . Christie suffers from trypophobia . Christie married comedian Stewart Lee in 2006. They have two children. Christie
702-461: A number of locations around the city. The internet began to have an impact in 2000 with the launch of the Fringe's official website, which sold more than half a million tickets online by 2005. The following year, a Half Price Ticket Tent, run in association with Metro newspaper, started offering special ticket prices for different shows each day. This sold 45,000 tickets in its first year. In 2008,
780-426: A part-time basis, but it became clear after a few weeks that the role would have to be permanent. Milligan was responsible for a number of innovations which remain in place today, such as the numbering system for venues and the Fringe map in the brochure, and he was also credited with establishing the co-operative spirit of the Fringe. He left in 1976. Between 1976 and 1981, under the direction of Alistair Moffat ,
858-442: A return to pre-pandemic levels, with 3,334 shows. Fifty were livestreamed, by NextUp Comedy , for the first time ever since the founding of The Fringe, in an effort to stay true to The Fringe Society's 2022 vision of equality and inclusiveness. The 2025 festival is scheduled from August 1 to 25. The Fringe started life when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With
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#1732781103830936-592: A review of Everyman in 1947, when a critic remarked it was a shame the show was so far out "on the fringe of the Festival". In 1950, it was still being referred to in similar terms, with a small 'f': On the fringe of the official Festival there are many praiseworthy "extras," including presentations by the Scottish Community Drama Association and Edinburgh University Dramatic Society – Dundee Courier , 24 August 1950 Since it
1014-519: A second series in 2015, Bridget's first BBC radio series was broadcast on Radio 4. In Bridget Christie Minds the Gap , she gives us her personal take on feminism, asking why it became a dirty word and whether women still need it. From a bookshop fart to the ' Bic for Her ' and a fish called Michael, she recalls the key incidents which led her to an epiphany and a call to arms - with the help of token man Fred MacAulay . In series two, she takes her activism to
1092-419: A vast free showcase of events held on The Meadows – was cancelled when a sponsor could not be secured. The "Big Four" venues - Assembly , Gilded Balloon , The Pleasance and Underbelly - also decided to market themselves as Edinburgh Comedy Festival , which drew criticism from some quarters. After an interim period, during which Tim Hawkins, formerly general manager of Brighton Komedia took charge,
1170-653: A weekly column in Guardian Weekend magazine from October 2015 to March 2016. In 2015, she won a Red Magazine Women of the Year Award and a Marie Claire Women at the Top Award. In May 2016, Christie recorded her debut screen stand-up special, Stand Up for Her (Live from Hoxton Hall ) , produced by Baby Cow Productions. It was released direct to Netflix on 31 March 2017. She has written and performed 13 solo shows. The majority originated at
1248-747: A year, in August, and board members serve a term of four years. The Board appoints the Fringe Society's Chief Executive (formerly known as the Fringe Administrator or Director). The Chief Executive operates under the chair. Phoebe Waller-Bridge , whose show Fleabag was performed at the Fringe in 2013 before it was adapted for television, was named the first-ever President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society in 2021. The planned 2020 Fringe Festival
1326-441: Is an open-access (or " unjuried ") performing arts festival, meaning that there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre , circus , cabaret , children's shows, musicals , opera, music, spoken word , exhibitions, and events. Comedy is the largest section, making up over one-third of
1404-571: Is performing their first full-length show (50 minutes or more)". The prize is £5,000. Newcomers are eligible for the Best Comedy Show Award, but no act is allowed to appear on both shortlists in the same year. A further prize, the Panel Prize , was inaugurated in 2006. All shows are eligible, and the award may not be awarded at all, if the panel so choose. This happened in 2017, when for the first time there were joint winners of
1482-687: The Actors Touring Company , it had operated in the south side of the city in 1980 and 1981, but in 1982 expanded into a piece of empty ground popularly known as "The Hole in The Ground" near the Usher Hall. This was once the site of a church building ( Poole 's Synod Hall), which was converted to a cinema, and where the Saltire complex was subsequently built in the early 1990s. The new Traverse Theatre opened here in 1993. It had
1560-614: The Almeida Theatre , ATC, Cheek By Jowl , Cherub, Cliff Hanger, Entertainment Machine, Hull Truck , Kick Theatre, Lumiere and Son, Medieval Players and Trickster were regulars. In 1983, the Fringe joined with the International Festival, Edinburgh Tattoo and the Film Festival to promote Edinburgh as 'The Festival City' for the first time. Moffatt believed the growth of the Fringe would stop due to
1638-670: The Assembly Theatre in the empty Georgian building Assembly Rooms on George Street (formerly the EIF Festival Club), the investment in staging, lighting and sound meant that the original amateur or student theatricals were left behind. In the same year, the YMCA in South St Andrew Street, which had been an important venue since the early days, closed. However, the subsequent rise in prominence of
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#17327811038301716-812: The Edinburgh Festival and include A Bic for Her , An Ungrateful Woman and her Brexit-themed Because You Demanded It , which was The Guardian'' s No 1 Comedy of the Year 2016. In 2020, she was a finalist for Best Scripted Comedy (Longform) in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Christie TV appearances include comedy programmes It's Kevin (BBC2), QI , The Omid Djalili Show (BBC1), Harry Hill 's Little Cracker (Sky), Anna and Katy (Channel 4), The Culture Show (BBC2), Mel & Sue (ITV), Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (Dave). and Have I Got News for You (BBC1) for which she
1794-618: The Edinburgh Fringe , the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival ) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which
1872-596: The Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe during August. It set a standard to which other companies on the Fringe aspired. The Traverse is occasionally referred to as "The Fringe venue that got away", reflecting its current status as a permanent and integral part of the Edinburgh arts scene. The Pleasance , a venue since the first year of the Fringe, was also important in setting the artistic tone. Christopher Richardson, founder of
1950-477: The Pleasance Theatre Trust , became a major Fringe figure. John Cairney is credited with pioneering the one-man Fringe show with his show based on Robert Burns , There Was A Man , in 1965, although Elspeth Douglas Reid had done her One Woman Theatre as early as 1955. American Nancy Cole played Gertrude Stein in 1969 and continued to do so until 1985. Over the first two decades of
2028-635: The Assembly Rooms meant there was now a balance in the Fringe between the Old Town and the New Town, with Princes Street in the middle. Fringe Sunday started in the High Street in 1981 and moved, through pressure of popularity, to Holyrood Park in 1983. Fringe Sunday was held on the second Sunday of the Fringe when companies performed for free. Having outgrown even Holyrood Park, this showcase took place on The Meadows and continued until 2008. 1981
2106-791: The Best Radio award at the 2014 Chortle Awards and the 2014 Rose D'Or International Broadcasting Award. Her debut book, A Book for Her , was published in July 2015 to acclaim from The Daily Telegraph and The List and The Observer . The paperback was released in February 2016 and the Spanish version in Barcelona in March 2017. Christie has written for The Sunday Times , The Times , The Independent and The Observer . She had
2184-573: The Fringe Club (variously in the High Street from 1971 and at Teviot Row House from 1981) provided nightly showcases of Fringe fare to allow audiences to sample shows. In its earlier years the club also provided a significant space for after-hours socialising at a time when Edinburgh's strict licensing laws meant a 10pm pub closing time. For a time, the main ticket office was in the University Chaplaincy Centre, and then in
2262-466: The Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile , and in August they also manage Fringe Central, a separate collection of spaces dedicated to providing support for Fringe participants during their time at the festival. The Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, many of whom are Fringe participants themselves – performers or venue operators. Elections are held once
2340-456: The Fringe faced its biggest crisis so far when the computerised ticketing system failed. The events surrounding the failed box office software led to the resignation of Fringe Director Jon Morgan after only one full year in post. The resultant financial loss suffered by the Fringe Society was estimated at £300,000, which it was forced to meet from its reserves, although other sources report this at £900,000. These events attracted much comment from
2418-423: The Fringe head's basic administrative function. A report into the failure was commissioned from accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff. Several venues now use their own ticketing systems; this is partly due to issues of commissions and how ticket revenue is distributed, but was reinforced by this 2008 failure of the main box office. The same year, other incidents conspired to add to the negative publicity. Fringe Sunday –
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2496-464: The Fringe in the late 1970s and some successful Fringe performers transferred to perform works at the Festival. These included Richard Crane and Faynia Williams, who in 1981 produced a sell-out version of The Brothers Karamazov for the Festival, after having been successful in the Fringe during the '70s. The early 1980s saw the arrival of the "super-venue" – locations that contained multiple performing spaces. By 1981 when William Burdett-Coutts set up
2574-399: The Fringe on merit given the Society's position of neutrality. Increasing show numbers was therefore a way of attracting more attention. At this point, the Fringe operated on only two full-time members of staff. In 1977, the office moved to a converted shop and basement at 170 High Street. The International Festival, now under the direction of John Drummond, became more accommodating towards
2652-436: The Fringe, each performing group used its own performing space, or venue. However, by the late 1960s, the concept of sharing a venue became popular, principally as a means of cutting costs. It soon became common for halls to host up to six or seven different shows per day. The obvious next step was to partition a venue into two or more performing spaces; the majority of today's major venues fit into this category. For many years,
2730-423: The International Festival programme. The YMCA became established as the first central Fringe ticket office. Not long afterwards came the first complaints that the Fringe had become too big. Director Gerard Slevin claimed in 1961 that "it would be much better if only ten halls were licensed". In the 1960s and 1970s, the Fringe began to establish its reputation for size and variety and the tension between it and
2808-622: The International Festival using the city's major venues, these companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their productions. Seven performed in Edinburgh, and one undertook a version of the medieval morality play " Everyman " in Dunfermline Abbey , about 20 miles north, across the River Forth in Fife. These groups aimed to take advantage of the large assembled theatre crowds to showcase their own alternative theatre. Although at
2886-669: The Perrier Comedy Awards. Sponsorship then passed to the Scottish-based bank Intelligent Finance and for 2006, the first year of their involvement, the awards were known as the if.comeddies , changing to the if.comedy awards for 2007 and 2008. In March 2009 Intelligent Finance announced it would not be renewing its sponsorship deal. The 2009 awards were known as the Edinburgh Comedy Award, sponsored by AbsoluteRadio.co.uk . From 2010 until 2015
2964-653: The Royal Mile Centre on the High Street. Although the Fringe was now associated with the High Street, areas like the New Town , West End and Morningside were also prominent in this period. Problems then began to arise as the Fringe became too big for students and volunteers to deal with. Eventually in 1969, the Fringe Society became a constituted body, and in 1970 it employed its first administrator, John Milligan. He started work in January 1971, originally on
3042-513: The UK and world media. More debts emerged as the year went on, and an independent report criticised the Board and the current and previous Fringe Directors for a failure of management and an inability to provide the basic service. The Board eventually decided that the post of "Director" (instituted in 1992 in lieu of "Fringe Administrator") would be abolished and replaced by a Chief Executive, to reinforce
3120-461: The Week panellist Chris Addison . Australian Comedian Brendon Burns has said that he is "arguably the least successful winner" of the award. A stand-up first won the award in 1987. Sean Hughes was the youngest winner of the award, at the age of 24 in 1990. A Best Newcomer Award was added in 1992, won by Harry Hill , and in 2006 the inaugural Panel Prize was won by Mark Watson . The panel prize
3198-467: The award's final year, promoter Peter Buckley Hill for his Free Fringe initiative. The 2002 awards were criticised because no female acts were shortlisted, the second consecutive year in which that was the case. In 2009, they were again criticised for all the nominees being male, as well as all being white, English and all performing at the same venue, The Pleasance . Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as
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3276-624: The awards taken up by some Fringe venues and performers, including former winners Emma Thompson , Steve Coogan , Stewart Lee and Rob Newman , led a campaign of protest against the award, beginning in 2001, called Baby Milk Action . The Nestlé boycott also led to the alternative Tap Water Awards which ran from 2001 to 2006, and aimed to promote access to safe supplies of drinking water and sanitation in developing countries; these awards were suspended for 2007 due to "having beaten Nestlé". Multiple winners were chosen each year, including established comedians like Stewart Lee and Robert Newman , and, in
3354-604: The awards were sponsored by Foster's Lager . From 2016 the awards have been sponsored by lastminute.com until 2019 when Dave began to sponsor the awards. For 2023, each award currently has a separate sponsor, being sponsored by Sky TV , DLT Entertainment and The Victoria Wood Foundation, respectively. 2024 saw DLT Entertainment expand its sponsorship to include both the DLT Entertainment Newcomer Award as well as The Don and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show. In order to avoid confusion due to
3432-579: The dominant type of comedy at the Fringe, were excluded. The first Perrier in fact advertised itself as for the "most outstanding revue", thus overlooking stand-up, which was beginning to emerge as a force due to the influence of the alternative comedy scene. The inaugural award and £1,000 prize was presented to the Cambridge Footlights , a cast that included Stephen Fry , Emma Thompson , Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery . Their show, entitled The Cellar Tapes played at St Mary Street Hall and
3510-547: The early 1950s. The first one was the New Drama Group's After The Show , a series of sketches taking place after Donald Pleasence 's Ebb Tide , in 1952. Among the talent to appear in early Fringe revues were Ned Sherrin in 1955, and Ken Loach and Dudley Moore with the Oxford Theatre Group in 1958. Due to many reviewers only being able to attend Fringe events late night after the official festival
3588-488: The effect of the award on their careers may be exaggerated. Nonetheless, the 1981 Award retains symbolic power for new comedians wanting to find fame at the Fringe. Many other award winners and nominees have gone on to forge successful careers in comedy and the media industry including Lee Evans , Milton Jones , Garth Marenghi's Darkplace creators Richard Ayoade and Matt Holness , double act Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller , QI panellist Alan Davies and Mock
3666-404: The enterprise lost £28,000, and in 1983 there were further criticisms related to over-charging, over-crowding and inadequate facilities. The Circuit was not repeated, but it had demonstrated the potential for temporary venues at the Fringe, which are now a familiar sight. Even with the rise of super venues, there was still theatre done on a shoestring, but several cultural entrepreneurs had raised
3744-461: The established Edinburgh Book Festival and Fringe manager Kath Mainland was appointed in February 2009 to stabilise the situation, becoming the Fringe's first Chief Executive. Comedy finally surpassed theatre as the biggest section of the programme in 2008, with 660 comedy entries to 599. In 2009, theSpaceUK launched their multi-space complex at the Royal College of Surgeons . In 2011,
3822-542: The first comedian to win Best Newcomer and Best Comedy Show in consecutive years. In the same year, James Meehan was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award with Gein's Family Giftshop, while winning the panel prize with Funz and Gamez. In 2017, for the first time, two awards were given for Best Show ( John Robins and Hannah Gadsby ). No panel prize was awarded in 2017. In 2018, Rose Matafeo became
3900-487: The first non-white comedian to win Best Comedy Show for a solo show, and the first New Zealander to win the award. Only four other female solo stand-up comedians had won the award before her: Jenny Eclair (1995), Laura Solon (2005), Bridget Christie (2013), and Hannah Gadsby (2017). In 2022, Amy Gledhill was nominated for best newcomer as a solo act, and best show as part of The Delightful Sausage . She
3978-567: The formation of the Festival Fringe Society. The push for such an organisation was led by Michael Imison , director of Oxford Theatre Group. A constitution was drawn up, in which the policy of not vetting or censoring shows was set out, and the Society produced the first guide to Fringe shows. Nineteen companies participated in the Fringe in that year. By that time it provided a "complete... counter-festival programme" although efforts were still being made to gain publicity through
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#17327811038304056-524: The frequency of name changes, past winners are now often said to have won "the Eddie", a popular colloquial term for the award, rather than referring to a specific year's sponsor. In 1995, Perrier was bought by Nestlé , the subject of a long-running boycott based on alleged violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes , leading to calls to boycott or to eliminate
4134-492: The main prize. Previously, in 2008, it had been awarded to "every comedian on the Fringe". Like Best Newcomer, the Panel Prize winner receives a cash prize of £5,000. The original award was created by Perrier in 1981 as a way of supporting young talent. Prior to this, there had been no award recognition for comedy shows on the Fringe. The Scotsman had introduced Fringe Firsts in 1973 for theatre. However, revues, then
4212-722: The melting polar ice caps, the Brexit negotiations and Nick Knowles singing a cover of The Beatles ’ “ Here Comes The Sun ” - so embarked on a comic quest for her Utopia , a way of living that will make her less anxious and enable her to have her first happy wee since the Brexit vote in 2016. It was recorded in front of a studio audience at the BBC Radio Theatre . Starring Bridget Christie with special guests Mike Christie, Leyla Hussein , Sister Agatha & Fran Blockley. Bridget Christie Minds The Gap In 2013, before
4290-582: The more formal International Festival became of mutual benefit. The artistic credentials of the Fringe were established by the creators of the Traverse Theatre , John Calder , Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco , in 1963. While their original objective was to maintain something of the Festival atmosphere in Edinburgh all year round, the Traverse Theatre quickly and regularly presented cutting-edge drama to an international audience at both
4368-502: The museum on the Radio 4 series The Museum of Curiosity . Mortal First broadcast in 2021, her four-part series for BBC Radio 4, Mortal , won the 2022 BBC Audio Drama Award. Mortal was a series about life and death which she recorded herself from home during Covid lockdown. Bridget Christie's Utopia In her 2018 BBC Radio 4 show Utopia , Bridget attempted to come to terms with current world events – Kim Jong-un ,
4446-424: The name "Fringe" was still not yet in regular usage. By that year, the Fringe was attracting around a dozen companies, and a meeting was held to discuss creating "a small organisation to act as a brain for the Fringe", or what The Scotsman called an "official unofficial festival". A first attempt was made to provide a central booking service in 1955 by students from the university, although it lost money, which
4524-502: The new ticket office. Its current headquarters are at 180 High Street. Acts included The Jim Rose Circus , who performed in 2008, and Tokyo Shock Boys who performed in 1994. The Fringe Club ceased operation in 2004, but various venues still provide "the Best of the Fest" and similar. A computerised booking system was first installed in the early 1990s, allowing tickets to be bought at
4602-469: The number of companies performing rose from 182 to 494, and new venues such as St Columba's in Newington came on board. Moffat also expanded the street performance aspect and brought in sponsorship deals, particularly local breweries. In this way, the Fringe ascended to its current position as the largest arts festival in the world. This was a deliberate policy by Moffat, who found it difficult to promote
4680-562: The programme, and the one that in modern times has the highest public profile, due in part to the Edinburgh Comedy Awards . The Festival is supported by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society , which publishes the programme, sells tickets to all events from a central physical box office and website, and offers year-round advice and support to performers. The Society's permanent location is at
4758-553: The stakes to the point where a venue like Aurora (St Stephen's Church, Stockbridge ) could hold its head up in any major world festival. However, in 1982, 24% of the Fringe was housed in The Circuit/Assembly, both of which were being commercially marketed, and this attracted complaints, including from Traverse Theatre founder, Richard Demarco, who felt the Fringe should not have allowed either venue. By 1988, there was, according to former Fringe Administrator Michael Dale,
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#17327811038304836-411: The time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe . This meant that two defining features of the future Fringe were established at the very beginning – the lack of official invitations to perform and the use of unconventional venues. Originally, these groups referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts" and were also referred to as the "semi-official" festival. It
4914-727: The youngest of nine siblings born to parents from the west of Ireland : her father, Peter Christie, was from Boyle in the north of County Roscommon , while her mother, Mary Anne ( née Kelly), was from Manorhamilton in the north of County Leitrim . She attended St Peter's Roman Catholic High School in Gloucester. In 1994, Christie won a three-year scholarship to study drama at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in Wandsworth , London. Christie appeared in theatre productions and adverts before she began stand-up in 2004. She
4992-589: Was 26.6% of shows. Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to (and on the "fringe" of) the Edinburgh International Festival , it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The combination of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. It
5070-461: Was a contestant in series 13 of Taskmaster (Channel 4), which began airing in April 2022. The Change Her first television series is titled The Change . It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 21 June 2023. It was also written and created by Christie. In the show, Bridget plays Linda, who finds a new lease of life when she learns she is undergoing menopause and heads to the forest on
5148-434: Was a watershed for comedy at the Fringe too. It was the first year of the Perrier Awards , which ran until 2005 and are now known as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards . The alternative comedy scene was also beginning to take shape. Previously, comedy at the Fringe had taken the form of student revues. Now stand-up was becoming a feature. According to Alexei Sayle , "The Fringe then was entirely University revues and plays; there
5226-423: Was awarded to 'all performers' in 2008, and the £4,000 prize money was put behind their bar at the end of August party. 2013 was the first year that all three awards went to shows in independent venues outside the so-called 'big four'. John Kearns (PBH) won Best Newcomer, Bridget Christie (The Stand) won Best Show and Adrienne Truscott (Heroes @ Bob's Bookshop) won the panel prize. In 2014, John Kearns became
5304-420: Was blamed on those who had not taken part. In 1956, the famous actor Donald Wolfit performed the solo show The Strong Are Lonely . This was not part of the International Festival, yet nor was it in the Fringe Programme, leading him to question the value of the "Fringe": "Away with the Fringe. To an artist in the theatre there is no such thing as a fringe of art." Formal organisation progressed in 1959, with
5382-435: Was finished, the Fringe came to be seen as being about revues. It was a few years before an official programme for the Fringe was created. John Menzies compiled a list of shows under the title "Other Events" in their omnibus festival brochure, but it was printer C. J. Cousland who was the first to publish a listings guide, in 1954. This was funded by participating companies and was entitled "Additional Entertainments", since
5460-401: Was for many years the only prize, and is now known as The Donald and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show , is awarded "for the funniest, most outstanding, up-and-coming comic / comedy show / act" at the Fringe. The winner receives a cash prize of £10,000. The DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer Award category was introduced in 1992 for Harry Hill, and is given to the best "performer or act who
5538-413: Was nominated for a 2014 British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comic, the Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), Room 101 (BBC1), Cardinal Burns (Channel 4), Celebrity Squares (ITV), This Week (BBC One) and Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule (ITV). In 2020 she appeared in BBC1's comedy Ghosts as Annie, a ghost who said four words. She reprised the role in 2022. Christie
5616-494: Was not a single piece of stand-up comedy until me and Tony [Allen] arrived." Comedy began an ascent which would see it become the biggest section of the programme by 2008. Moffat resigned as the Fringe Society Administrator in 1981 and was succeeded by Michael Dale, who changed the programme layout and helped the Fringe consolidate. The following year, 1982, The Circuit became a prominent venue. Run by
5694-432: Was not until the following year, 1948, that Robert Kemp , a Scottish playwright and journalist, is credited with coining the title "Fringe" when he wrote during the second Edinburgh International Festival : Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before ... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings! The word "fringe" had in fact been used in
5772-536: Was not yet fully developed, much of the early years of the Fringe has gone unrecorded, except through anecdote. It did not benefit from any official organisation until 1951, when students of the University of Edinburgh set up a drop-in centre in the YMCA , where cheap food and a bed for the night were made available to participating groups. Late-night revues, which would become a feature of Fringes, began to appear in
5850-545: Was one of the finalists in the Funny Women Awards that year, won by Zoe Lyons . She was described by the show's founder Lynne Parker as "one of the most influential funny women who has ever entered our competition". Her debut BBC Radio 4 series, Bridget Christie Minds the Gap , was broadcast in April 2013. A second series was broadcast in January 2015, followed by a third, Bridget Christie's Utopia , in January 2018. The three series were well received and won
5928-496: Was promoted in the programme with the line, "one of the strongest casts for several years, has already toured in southern England with great success." The award was presented by Rowan Atkinson , who had performed with the Oxford Revue in 1976. The later success of these initial winners would boost the profile of the awards. However, former Oxbridge revue members had always been able to find success in light entertainment, so
6006-457: Was suspended along with all of the city's other major summer festivals. This came as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the early months of the year, with concerns of spreading the virus any further. The 2021 festival took place during 6–30 August 2021, though it was much reduced in size, with 528 shows in person and 414 online. The 2022 festival took place from 5–29 August 2022 and marked
6084-422: Was the first person to be nominated for involvement in two shows in the same year since Dan Antopolski in 2000. Jordan Gray became the first solo transgender act to be nominated for the main prize, while Sam Campbell was the first winner of the main prize to do a shorter run. From their inception in 1981 until 2005 the awards were sponsored by mineral water brand Perrier , during which time they were known as
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