You can catch the fifth heat of the New Comedy Award 2014 on Friday 10th October at 10.30pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The show was recorded at the iconic Comedy Store in Manchester.
Here's some more information about the comedians performing in this heat:
Vicky Arlidge fell into comedy in 2011 after writing a song about motherhood that went viral on YouTube. Since then she has made two trips to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, (nominated for the ‘Best Show Award’ by Funny Women 2013), performed at Glastonbury and clocked up over 35,000 YouTube hits.
Twitter: @VickyArlidge
Dalia Malek is a PhD candidate based in London and entered the competition because she is looking to take the next step in comedy.
Twitter: @daliamalek
"Hi....I'm originally from California. 4 1/2 years in has lead me to London, then it took me to Manchester....if these trends continue, I should be in Chester by 2016."
Adam Hastings is a Geordie. Adam Hastings is a comedian.
"Elegant and Stunning!" - Barry.
"I pictured him as being tall but he's just kind of like, you know, normal height." - An onlooker/audient.
"A geordie comedian!" - Adam Hastings
“My real name is Michael Stranney which I don’t use on stage for tax reasons. I entered the competition because when I started stand-up 2 years ago I said to myself ‘I’ll keep going until I get on radio or TV’. So now that’s happened, I can finally retire. So thank you everyone. It’s been fabulous.”
“The only 2 things that you need to know about me is that I love Concorde and hate Falconry. I have entered the BBC Comedy award as the BBC created some of my favourite TV comedy shows, specifically Terry and June (I have the boxset)”
“I've been doing stand-up comedy for just over 2 years now, I'm Glaswegian but lived in The Black Country most of my adult life. I entered this competition because BBC Radio Comedy (Blue Jam, League Of Gentlemen etc.) has been a source of inspiration and massive laughs, I wanna do that too.”
Josh started performing stand up in 2011. He began by telling puns and one liners, then more self-deprecating anxiety ridden stuff and is now trying to just be himself on stage and failing, but as John Hegley paraphrased Beckett 'it is important in life to stumble from one failure to the next'.
Twitter: @joshyross
Genial giant, Darren Walsh, brings a kaleidoscope of surreal and straight-up hilarious comic possibilities in the form of one-liners, silly sounds, brief musical stings and even invisible horses. Darren's recent crowning as UK Pun Champion has increasingly marked him out as one of the vital new comic voices.
Twitter: @TheGiantTweets
Pav is 34-years-old and has performed in London for roughly three years and is extremely bitter (he prefers the word ‘passionate’) about a number of issues. His stand-up tends to focus on just one issue on which he dwells on for an unnecessarily long time, whether the audience likes it or not.
