The longest ever shortlist. The first ever joint winners. And clearly, the most indecisive judging panel ever.
It was indeed, as the publicity would have it, an “unprecedented” year for the Edinburgh comedy awards. But, if there’s a worry that the currency of these awards is being devalued, there can be no real complaints about this year’s champs: probably the two most audacious stand-up shows on the fringe, and certainly among the funniest.
Hannah Gadsby’s show Nanette arrived in town trailing plaudits – and the second biggest prize in international live comedy, the Barry award – from its Australian debut. A highly confrontational farewell to comedy from an artist who swears the show will be her last, it tells the story of Gadsby’s experiences of homophobia since growing up in Tasmania, where homosexuality was illegal until 1997. In her previous comedy shows, the 39-year-old has soft-soaped those experiences to make audiences laugh. In Nanette, she refuses to do so – and the effect is electrifying. But also deeply uncomfortable, and some speculated that the show was too serious-minded (more so even than 2016 winner, Richard Gadd’s Monkey See Monkey Do ) to win a comedy award.
John Robins’s show is hardly less eye-catching: a carnival of gallows humour chronicling his traumatic breakup with the comedian Sara Pascoe (whose identity he conceals in the show), and his struggle to readjust to single life. Robins, 35 – hitherto best known for the radio show and podcast he co-hosts with fellow comic Elis James, and a fringe regular since 2009 – turns the experience into self-lacerating comedy, turning the rejection, loneliness and self-abasement into bleak but very big laughs. His former partner Pascoe staged her own show about the breakup at the same venue. It too was acclaimed by critics and audiences, but Robins’s had the edge, if only for the distinctiveness of a set that combined uproarious humour with unflinching candour about the depths of his distress.
Their joint victory is a fair reflection of a fringe that featured a higher number than usual of good shows, but no standout. Gadsby is unlikely to parlay the award into a higher profile, given that she’s quitting comedy, but we’ll be seeing more of Robins in future: touring and TV opportunities usually follow hard on an Edinburgh comedy award win. Meanwhile, the extra-long shortlist has elevated exciting younger acts like Mat Ewins and Sophie Willan into the bigger league.
