Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival Awards nominations are announced

The nominations for the annual awards to celebrate Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival have been announced.

Nominees include comedians Charlie Baker, Lee Ridley, Anthony King, Rhys Matthewson, Romesh Ranganathan, Paul Currie and Nish Kumar.

Venues which have been recognised for their contribution to the event include The Crumblin' Cookie, Dave’s Curry House, Curve, The Criterion and The Belmont Hotel.

The awards, set up in 2006, recognise the contribution people make to the February festival and include awards for Best Show, Best Venue, Best Make Me Happy community project and Contribution to Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2013.

The first Legend of Comedy Award will also be presented at the ceremony. Winners will be announced at a private ceremony taking place at The City Rooms, Leicester on Monday 11th March.

Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival Director, Geoff Rowe, said:

“The awards are a great way for us to acknowledge the performers, venues and other people who contribute so much to the annual festival. I’m delighted to be able to announce the nominations and look forward to opening the golden envelopes at the main ceremony and announcing the winners.”

The majority of the awards have been decided by a group of members of the public who applied to become judges.

The full list of nominees is (in alphabetical order):

Best Venue (over 200 capacity)

Curve

De Montfort Hall

Just the Tonic

The Little Theatre

The Y

Best Venue (under 200 capacity)

Dave’s Curry House

Kayal

The Belmont Hotel

The Criterion

The Crumblin' Cookie

Best New Show

Anthony King – Not Normal

Brett Goldstein – Contains Scenes of an Adult Nature

Charlie Baker – Work in Progress

Geoff Norcott – Farewell Shiny Suit

Lee Ridley – Voice of Choice

Rhys Matthewson

Best Show

Barbara Steele’s Wheels of Steel

Francesca Martinez – What the *** is Normal?

Nish Kumar – Who is Nish Kumar?

Paul Currie – The Sticky Bivouac

Romesh Ranganathan – Rom Com

Best Promoter

Bottle Rocket Comedy

Curve

Just the Tonic

The Y

Contribution to Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2013

Andy Hollingworth & East Midlands Trains

Demon FM

Maria Jeppersen

Mark Olver

Make Me Happy community project

DMU Square Miles Smiles

I Love Apex

Old Folks Telling Jokes

Regent College

Rob Gee

Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2013 took place from February 8 to 24 and featured over 530 events in 60 venues across Leicester and Leicestershire. Over 500 performers appeared and audiences flocked from across the UK to the event, the longest running comedy festival in Europe.