The increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Awards has announced its nominees for Comic Originality, Cunning Stunt and Act Most Likely to Win a Million Quid.
Founded in memory of comic, promoter and prankster Malcolm Hardee, the awards celebrate the spirit of anarchy found in the wilder shores of the Edinburgh Fringe
Nominated for Comic Originality are: Vinay Sagar, The Duncan Brothers, Elliot Wengler, Garry Starr, Mark Dean Quinn, Nate Kitch, Paulina Lenoir, and Neil Davidson.
Sagar has created a show based on 10,000 digits of Pi, the Duncan Brothers star in their own epic, Elliot Wengler embodies every species of Pokemon while Nate Kitch storms out of his own show. Garry Starr re-enacts works of literature while dressed as a penguin, Paulina Lenoir drinks champagne and cavorts in high fashion, while Neil Davidson conducts tours of his own singular museum. Mark Dean Quinn, in one of the most talked about shows of the Fringe, eats cheese at 2am in the cinema space of Scotland’s most haunted pub.
The shortlist for the Cunning Stunt awards, for audacious attempts to drum up publicity are: Huge Davidson, Luke Rollason, Thom Tuck and Tim Reeves.
Huge Davidson was shortlisted for creating spoof newspapers that claimed he had been cancelled, Luke Rollason for putting toilet rolls with his face printed on them in artists’ bars, Thom Tuck for performing a show at different times and venues every day and Tim Reeves for creating a pastiche version of the Fringe programme, full of non existent shows.
The act Most Likely to Win a Million Quid Award nominees are Dylan Mulvaney, Garry Starr and Finlay Christie.
Mulvaney is performing a one woman musical based on her own life story, Garry Starr has a show which takes public nudity to new limits while Finlay Christie has successfully transitioned from Tik Tok sensation to fully formed comic. All have been tipped for post Fringe fame in a category whose previous winners include Bo Burnham, Trevor Noah and Julia Masli.
The winners will be announced on the final Saturday of the Fringe.
