Edinburgh Fringe: Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Shortlist

Edinburgh Fringe - Shock Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Shortlist

The shortlist has been announced at the Edinburgh Fringe for the annual increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards in memory of the late 'godfather of British alternative comedy’ who drowned in London in 2005. As normal, there are three awards, but the third is more than a bit of a surprise.

The shortlisted nominees are:

THE MALCOLM HARDEE AWARD FOR COMIC ORIGINALITY

- Red Bastard
- Ursula Burns (unbilled in the Programme)
- Adrienne Truscott

THE MALCOLM HARDEE CUNNING STUNT AWARD

(for best publicity stunt promoting a Fringe performer or show)

Barry Ferns for printing 2,000 fake Broadway Baby and Three Weeks review sheets and distributing them round Edinburgh. They gave his own show a 6-star review

Richard Herring for deciding that expensive Fringe posters are pointless and, instead, giving members of his current show’s audience free DVDs of his past performances

Lewis Schaffer for (having heard about Richard’s stunt) also giving away allegedly free DVDs at his shows - but free Richard Herring DVDs because Richard is more famous than Lewis (and you have to donate £5 to Lewis)

- Gareth Morinan (for listing his show 11 times in the Fringe Programme because this gave him more space (and was cheaper) than buying a quarter page ad in the Programme.

THE MALCOLM HARDEE ‘ACT MOST LIKELY TO MAKE A MILLION QUID' AWARD

This will not be awarded this year, because no-one is seen as worth it. 

However, as the £-sign trophy has already been made and (in the spirit of Malcolm Hardee) we are not about to waste it, we are awarding it as a special one-off MALCOLM HARDEE ‘POUND OF FLESH’ AWARD to Gareth Ellis of the Ellis & Rose comedy duo for “the kind of publicity money can’t buy”.

On August 14th, Gareth Ellis was attacked in the street by an unknown, irate member of the public who was annoyed by Ellis & Rose’s appearance in “Jimmy Savile: The Punch & Judy Show”. Gareth received a very bad black eye. This followed a Chortle comedy website review which revealed Ellis & Rose’s names as the show’s performers - They had asked not to be named. The incident is reported (with photo) in So It Goes - John Fleming’s Blog.

http://wp.me/pR0wt-97K

EXCEPT - it was revealed to the Malcolm Hardee judges last night - the attack never happened. It was a publicity stunt. In their Edinburgh flat, Gareth Ellis repeatedly hit himself in the face wit the blunt end of a milk whisk. When this did not have the required effect, his comedy partner punched him four times in the face to give him a black eye.

They did this solely to get publicity and bigger audiences for their own show Ellis & Rose: Big in Denmark. They claim their audience numbers rose by 50% as a result.

They also videoed the creation of the black eye - The video shows Gareth hitting himself in the face and then being punched in the face. 

The video was uploaded onto YouTube shortly before this press release was issued. They also talk about it exclusively in today’s So It Goes: John Fleming’s Blog.
http://blog.thejohnfleming

Coincidentally, John Fleming’s Comedy Blog Chat Show live at the Fringe 1530-1630 today is about the mental health issues of comedians. It features three comics who have been in mental homes plus John (who has too) plus comedy critic Kate Copstick talking about her own mental health problems.

THE WINNERS OF THE MALCOLM HARDEE AWARDS

will be announced around midnight this Friday night (23rd August), during the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards Show.

For more details of the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards, see:

http://www.fosterscomedyawards.co.uk

(read that web address again carefully)

ENDS

© Scoop Media