Edinburgh Comedy Award

Edinburgh Comedy Awards
Best Newcomer Nominees 2015
Sponsored by	Foster's
Date	1981
Location	Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Country	Scotland
Former name(s)	Perrier Award, if.comeddies, if.comedy Awards
Reward(s)	£10,000 (Main prize), £5,000 (Other prizes)
Currently held by	Richard Gadd, Scott Gibson, Iraq Out & Loud: Reading the Chilcot Report in Full
Highlights
Best Comedy Show	Richard Gadd - Monkey See Monkey Do
Best Newcomer	Scott Gibson – Life After Death
Panel Prize	Iraq Out & Loud: Reading the Chilcot Report in Full
Official website	comedyawards.co.uk

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards or Eddies (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Established in 1981, they are the most prestigious comedy prize in the United Kingdom. The awards have been directed and produced by Nica Burns since 1984.

The most recent awards were given to Richard Gadd, Scott Gibson and Iraq Out & Loud: Reading the Chilcot Report in Full

The main prize, which was for many years the only prize, and is now known as the Best Comedy Show, is awarded "for the funniest, most outstanding, up-and-coming comic / comedy show / act" at the Fringe. The winner receives a cash prize of £10,000 and an invitation to perform at the Montreal, Toronto and Chicago Just for Laughs Comedy Festivals.

The Best Newcomer Award category was introduced in 1992, and is given to the best "performer or act who is performing their first full-length show (50 minutes or more)". The prize is £5,000. Newcomers are eligible for the Best Comedy Show Award, but no act is allowed to appear on both shortlists in the same year.

A further prize, the Panel Prize, was inaugurated in 2006. All shows are eligible, and the award may not be awarded at all, if the panel so choose. This has never happened since the prize was founded, although in 2008 it was awarded to "every comedian on the Fringe". Like Best Newcomer, the Panel Prize winner receives a cash prize of £5,000.

The original award was created by Perrier in 1981 as a way of supporting young talent. The inaugural award was presented to the Cambridge Footlights, a cast that included Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery. Many award winners and nominees have gone on to forge successful careers in comedy and the media industry including Lee Evans, Milton Jones, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace creators Richard Ayoade and Matt Holness, double act Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, QI panellist Alan Davies and Mock the Week panellist Chris Addison. Australian Comedian Brendon Burns has said that he is "arguably the least successful winner" of the award.