Interview: Over the years it has honoured some of the biggest names in comedy, including Rich Hall, Al Murray, The League of Gentlemen, Steve Coogan, Stephen Fry, Sean Hughes and Frank Skinner.

Over the years it has honoured some of the biggest names in comedy, including Rich Hall, Al Murray, The League of Gentlemen, Steve Coogan, Stephen Fry, Sean Hughes and Frank Skinner.

However, the 30-year history of the Edinburgh Comedy Award nearly came to an end this year.

Nica Burns, the competition's founder and producer, has said that its future looked bleak before she decided to invest £150,000 of her own money to make sure the signature award of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - for many years known as the Perrier award - runs again this year.

Earlier this year, its previous sponsors, Intelligent Finance, decided not to renew its funding deal and Ms Burns considered cancelling the annual competition, which has given the best new comics at the Fringe an award and a guaranteed national profile since 1981.

However, Ms Burns, a theatre producer who also runs five theatres in London's West End, said that not running the comedy awards this year would have signalled the end of the prize that is a key part of the annual Fringe.

She turned down new sponsorship deals from "inappropriate" sponsors and has paid for the prize out of her own cash reserves.

"I have emptied out my piggy bank," she said, "there was no other way of doing it.

"I realised there was a huge amount of support out there for the awards. I got an e-mail for a series of young comedians saying that they would perform a benefit night to support the awards, and that brought a tear to my eye.

"We hoped the deal with Intelligent Finance would last a long time, ten years, but no-one could have foreseen what happened to the economy. I totally understand their point of view and why they did not want to carry on.

"If we had not gone ahead with it this year, then it would have been over forever, because you need the continuity from year to year. There was a moment when I thought about ending it: I had to think about it very, very hard."

Ms Burns added: "It is a lot of money and I never expected to have to write the cheque myself."

She said she expected the award to have several sponsors, perhaps one sponsoring each of the different awards of the prize, next year.

This year the winner of the award will be invited to perform at the Just for Laughs comedy festivals in Montreal, Toronto and Chicago as part of the prize.

Ms Burns is the co-owner of Nimax Theatres Ltd, which bought the Lyric, Apollo, Garrick, Duchess and Vaudeville theatres in London in 2005.

This year the awards will simply be called the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, or Eddies.

The very first prize, then known as the Perrier Award, was first presented to the Cambridge Footlights in 1981- a line-up that included Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson.

This year the best comedy show will win £8000, best newcomer £4000 and winner of the panel prize £4000.

There will be a lot of competition for the prize this year, as comedy has grown to such an extent that it now makes up 35% of the Fringe programme, by far the largest percentage as an art form, and there are more than 400 comedy acts on show.

Ms Burns said: "The Fringe is the comedy Glastonbury, there is nothing else like it in the world and it is the only place where comedy gets its proper moment in the spotlight as a genre. You cannot say too much about what Edinburgh has done for British comedy.

"This year, despite the economy, the auguries are good, and the box office system which last year crashed seems to be working well so far. If there is a hot summer, it should be a successful year."