Revealed: six acts in the running for 2012 Edinburgh comedy award

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/aug/22/edinburgh-comedy-award-shortlist-announced

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Standup, sketch, silent comedy and a "difficult theatre show" in the advanced stages of collapse are among this year's shortlist for the Foster's Edinburgh comedy award, announced on Wednesday.

The annual award – originally known as the Perrier – is the most prestigious prize in comedy, and its former winners include Steve Coogan, Frank Skinner and The League of Gentlemen.

This year's nominees include the fun-loving sketch troupe Pappy's, whimsical standup turned anti-Tory agitator Josie Long and the latest offering from the subversive silent clown, Doctor Brown – aka the American comedian Philip Burgers.

Long is making her third consecutive appearance on the shortlist, having won the best newcomer award in 2006. Alongside her, the nomination of Australian comedian Claudia O'Doherty – whose show The Telescope involves her failing to stage a historical drama about a time-travelling monk – makes this only the second time that two solo female acts have featured on the shortlist.

The six-strong list is completed by the Canadian absurdist Tony Law's show Maximum Nonsense, and by the least experienced comedian to feature, 27-year-old James Acaster, who debuted on the fringe last year and recently supported Long on tour.

The Edinburgh comedy award – selected by an audience and industry panel, and sponsored by Foster's since 2010 – is worth £10,000.

There is also £5,000 awarded to the best newcomer, and the 2012 shortlist features the much-hyped multimedia comic David Trent, oddball Ben Target, and Joe Lycett alongside Sam Fletcher and Daniel Simonsen.

Trent – who will start favourite for the award – peddles dark, late-night humour using a Dell Studio 17 computer, YouTube and 153 slides.

The act to beat on the main shortlist, though, is Pappy's, whose Last Show Ever (the title, too, is a joke) has garnered five-star reviews across the board.

A brilliantly constructed hour of silliness that imagines the sketch trio (Matthew Crosby, Tom Parry and Ben Clark) looking back as old men at their final performance, it's the best set yet from the Edinburgh and circuit regulars.

The hottest competition may come from Long, whose three-year tenancy of the shortlist recalls Al Murray's always-the-bridesmaid stint between 1996 and 1998. Murray went on to win the Perrier in 1999.

Nica Burns, the West End theatre producer and organiser of the Edinburgh comedy awards, claimed that the shortlist "summed up an extraordinarily inventive year for comedy at this year's fringe. The performers are all immensely charismatic and often thought-provoking while being extremely funny."

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Saturday, and will perform – alongside all the nominees – at a special Edinburgh comedy awards show the following day.

A short list of shortlisted jokes

James Acaster: "13 out of 12 people don't know what a baker's dozen is."

Claudia O'Doherty: "I've invented a sex thriller – lots of handsome men will be replicated in the future. It's called George Cloney."

Josie Long: "I have only one fashion look and that's Norwegian Boy."

Tony Law: "Next time a witch offers to turn me into a dog … I'm gonna ask some questions first. Like a) how long for? And b) how many limbs do I get?"