The winners of The Malcolm Hardee Awards 2025 have been revealed. The award honours the anarchic, anything goes, spirit of the Fringe
Paul Campbell was awarded the prize for Comic Originality, Dru Cripps won the Cunning Stunt Award- while Phil Ellis was named Most Likely to Make a Million Quid.
Campbell and Ellis were surprised on stage with presentations at the end of their shows on Friday, while Cripps, who won Cunning Stunt, received his award via fishing rod as he fished for punters from the bridge at Potterow.
Cripps, whose fishing rod trick won the Cunning Stunt Award, was concerned when he spotted members of the Hardee panel lurking in the underpass. “I thought you were from the council.” he said.
Ellis, who was interrupted on stage just before his bucket speech at the Monkey Barrel said: “A million quid? That puts a lot of pressure on the bucket.”
Representatives of the Hardee Awards had to run between venues to present the awards – with Ellis and Campbell’s shows running just fifteen minutes apart.
Kate Copstick, who has been on the Malcolm Hardee panel since it began, said she was delighted Paul Campbell had been chosen for the Comic Originality Award. Campbell’s show, which is performed in a shipping container, explores his love for the now defunct supermarket Somerfield
Copstick said: “It is thrilling to find a show and a performer like The Lost Tapes of Somerfield and Paul Campbell. This is quintessential Hardee. Unexpectable, and from the heart and the soul. Fuck knows what he will do next year … Lidl is just not that exciting.”
Paul Campbell said “I am really happy because I put so much thought into this and worked hard to try and make good because I really loved Somerfield.
“I wanted to make a show that was accessible but really expressed how much I love Somerfield. So I’m so happy that I was able to create something that people seem to have enjoyed.”
Phil Ellis, who in 2003 won the award for Comic Originality, is due to appear on the next UK series of Taskmaster. The Hardee panel decided it was time he made a million quid after delighting Fringe audiences for years with his endearingly ramshackle and brilliantly funny shows. His show this year, Soppy Stern, which is about family and home, is his most personal one yet.
Ellis said: “Winning one Malcolm Hardee award was a dream, but winning two is overwhelming. It means a lot to have so much support from people, and especially people who appreciate a little bit of chaos. It’s capped off a wonderful year at the Fringe. I still haven’t met Malcolm though, which feels a bit rude, on his part!”
Musical comic Dru Cripps won the Cunning Stunt award for his novel technique for publicising his interactive show Juicy Bits, at Hoots. Every evening Cripps would climb up onto the bridge at Potterow and fish for punters by dangling his flyers above their heads. The Cunning Stunt Award recognises the inventive and creative ways performers find to attract audiences to their shows.
Cripps said: “I don’t care about any other awards at the Fringe apart from this one. It’s the last hope of keeping the Fringe and the Fringe spirit alive.
“The first time I came to the Fringe I did my show in a bus. This makes me feel there is support for artists like me who want to keep the Fringe a Fringe.”
The other comics nominated for Originality were: Alan Resnick, Johnny White Really Really, Joz Norris, Lucy Pearman, Nate Kitch and Stephen Catlin.
Also nominated for the Million Quid award were: Alice Cockayne, Andrew O’Neill, Christopher Macarthur Boyd, Sam Nicoresti, Molly McGuinness and Toussaint Douglass.
Cunning Stunt nominees were: Dan Boerman, Dru Cripps, Rob Duncan and Narin Oz.
The Malcolm Hardee Awards have run since 2005, the year of Malcolm Hardee’s death. The judging panel is comprised of Marissa Burgess, Kate Copstick, Bruce Dessau, Claire Smith and Ian Wolf.
Esteemed comedy guru and Malcolm Hardee judge Bruce Dessau, who runs comedy website Beyond the Joke said: “If you want to see comedy in all of its mucky, inventive, irreverent glory then look no further than the acts on this list. They all channel the anarchic do-what-you-like spirit of Malcolm Hardee while harnessing it to a unique creative spirit of their own. Long live the children of Hardee!”
Pics by Ed Moore
