Budding comedian? Now’s your chance…

A message from Paul B Edwards for all budding stand-ups:

The Lastminutecomedy Club New Comedian Of The Year returns with heats taking place in March & April and finals in May.

Previous finalists have included Carly Smallman, Wouter Meijs, Kate Lucas, Darren Walsh, Jay Foreman, Damian Kingsley and last year’s winner Pete Beckley.

This is not a competition for time wasters, brand new acts or people looking for stage time. The winner of the overall competition gets full bookings at all of our gigs during the next calendar year which ultimately amounts to around £1000 worth of work (but this does vary). The two runners up in the overall competition also get half sets at the clubs, the oldest of which has been running for twenty years.

The winner of each heat will be awarded a cash prize of £100 and qualify for the finals weekend, with runners up also getting their expenses covered on the night.

The heats will this year take place on the following dates:

Thursday March 28th Luton
Sunday March 31st Bedford
Friday April 5th Hitchin
Saturday April 6th Letchworth
Sunday April 7th Baldock
April TBC Henlow (This will be a “runners up” final – the winner will get the last place in the finals weekend but no cash prize on the night. We try and give everyone their expenses at this show)

The finals will take place May 10/11/12/13 in Stroud, Holsworthy, TBC & Tiverton (Comedy Hall). Acts MUST be available for ALL of these dates BEFORE they apply to the competition. All finalists get an expenses-paid weekend away for this including hotel accommodation and travel and it’s GREAT fun. The final this year will be judged over all the shows with aggregate scores declaring the winners. This way no-one will be the victim of “A bad slot”. We CANNOT be any fairer than this!

Each heat is judged by four independent adjudicators. Previous years have been tremendously good but be warned – the standard is relatively high, the heats take place in existing provincial comedy clubs that run successfully throughout the year. Showing up with hack rape and paedophile jokes will not win you any friends and if you currently finish a single gag with “and so I stabbed him” you should not bother applying. if you win this competition you will be performing 30 minute sets alongside established (And in some cases famous) comedians.

Anyway, now I’ve done my best to put you off, here are the contact details:

Interested applicants should contact lastminutecomedy@hotmail.co.uk with a promo clip enclosed. Previous entrants are welcome to enter again but MUST do so with a different set from previous years. ALL applications are considered but if your only experience is a couple of five minute gigs upstairs in a pub no-one’s ever heard of, please do yourself a favour and wait until NEXT year.

The deadline for applications is February 1st, 2013. We will do our best to put you into the heat you prefer but this cannot always be the case.

One last thing – entering the competition does not give you the divine right to then pester me for work. The WINNER of this competition gets bookings at our gigs. The two RUNNERS UP get half sets. I’m sorry to have to say this but some of the idiotic demands from people last year were nearly enough to stop me going to the trouble to put this thing on again. I don’t like turning anyone down (Nobody likes rejection) but if you finish last in your heat and then tell me you ought to be playing my clubs, I will NOT be polite with you 😆

Good luck to you all and I look forward to sifting through 5000+ youtube clips…

Paul B. Edwards (And Lastminutecomedy) xxx

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