The Edinburgh Festival has long been a route for UK comedians (and others from around the world) to try and get themselves seen and there is an awards show that is highly prized (within the industry).

What was then called the Perrier Award began in 1981 (sponsored by Perrier, would you believe?) and ran until 2006 (since when it’s changed names, several times, as it’s gone through sponsor changes). The website currently is branded as Edinburgh Comedy Awards (here).

Jimmy’s history at the Edinburgh Festival (potted version) was that he:

• entered So You Think You’re Funny? in 1999 (here)
• entered the Telegraph Awards in 2000 (here)
• performed with Gervais, Merchant and Ince (in Rubbernecker) in 2001 (here)
• performed his first solo show, Bare Faced Ambition, in 2002 (here)

At Edinburgh 2002 the Perrier Award Nominees were:

• Daniel Kitson (winner)
• Jimmy Carr
• Omid Djalili
• Noel Fielding
• Adam Hills
• Phil Nichol

A short write-up and pics of the nominees can be found on this BBC web page and Chortle has a list of the winners up to 2012 (announced on August 24^th).

The British Newspaper Archive (which you can only view 3 articles on, unless you subscribe, which I have) had a few articles about the awards.

An August piece in The Scotsman made much of 4 of the group being teetotal (Omid, Noel, Daniel and Phil), that Jimmy hadn’t been drunk in 3.5 years and Adam drinks in moderation. The joke being that they were all given a crate of Champagne… The winner also received £7,500 and a headline slot at a “pick of the Fringe show” at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.

Several articles mentioned that the awards were accused of sexism (by the Equal Opportunities Commission) because of the “all male shortlist”, despite HALF of the panel judges being women.

This always grinds my gears…funniest person should ALWAYS win.

There was more controversy around the sponsor (Nestle) because of their marketing of formula milk in developing nations. The winner (Daniel) was to be invited to tour the Nestle operation in Africa to judge for himself.

It appears cans of Perrier were provided for the comics, on stage, and The Scotsman (publishing an interview with Jimmy on August 24^th) noted that he didn’t drink much of it, during his performance. He said:

It’s just a little bit fizzy for onstage. You need still stuff otherwise you tend to get a bit windy. I didn’t want to make a big deal, but I wanted to reference it.

He went on to say that the nomination was “very exciting and flattering” but that he felt his show (Bare Faced Ambition) still needed to be improved.

Barred!

This was his one and only chance at this award as Your Face or Mine (version 1 – here) launched September 2002, rendering Jimmy ineligible for Edinburgh 2003.

The rules around “best act” nominations are that you can be someone that has appeared on panel show or guest appearances (in other TV shows) but if you are the host (or star) of a mainstream TV show, then you are barred.

Another rule on entry is that you cannot be someone that is regularly filling 500+ seat venues. The above TV rule means this one probably didn’t need to be applied (to Jimmy) but just to note that, in 2002-3, he was mainly playing venues of under 400.

For list of Awards – see here