THE nominees for the most prestigious comedy award at the Fringe have been announced, including two winners of The Herald's own Angel awards.
The Best Newcomer short list this year is dominated by female comics, with five nominated out of the six performers on the list.
Alex Edelman, who picked up an Angel last week, and Sarah Keyworth, a winner in the first week of the festival, have been short listed for the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
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The nominees for Best Comedy Show include Ahir Shah, who was nominated in 2017, Edelman, Felicity Ward, who is a regular co-host of The Guilty Feminist Podcast and appears on the Radio 4 Series, Appisodes, Glenn Moore, Kieran Hodgson, Larry Dean and Rose Matafeo.
Hodgson has been twice nominated for the award before, in 2015 and 2016, while Dean was short listed for the Best Newcomer prize in 2015.
The nominees for Best Newcomer this year are Ciarán Dowd, Maisie Adam, Olga Koch, Sara Barron, Sindhu Vee, and Ms Keyworth.
Nica Burns, director of the awards, said: "A truly international shortlist of extremely talented funny comedians for Best Comedy Show, with female stand-ups dominating an outstanding Best Newcomer shortlist for the first time in the history of the awards.
"Between them, they cover every aspect of contemporary life from: why Britain voted to stay in the EU in 1975 to family, personal relationships, love, sex in your 20s, gender and sexual identity, living with your in-laws and being the only Jew at a meeting of the far-right."
The judging panel, chaired by Stephen Armstrong, includes Gayle Anderson, The Herald's Comedy Critic.
Winners will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony on 25 August.
The prize money for best comedy show is £10,000 with £5,000 each for the Best Newcomer and the Panel Prize winner.
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