#(this is the winner of phils quiz show from a few years ago if you dont remember!)

[dandp]

Iconic meeting (x)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I'm staying at my parents' place right now, and this morning, I saw a package on their table. I've been ordering stuff to be delivered to their place lately, since I've been in transition with where I live and don't know where I'll be when things get delivered, but they've been in the same house since 1998. I'd already received the headphones and new laptop that I was expecting at their place this weekend, so I wondered what on Earth this new package could be.

Then I opened it up, and I remembered that time about one month ago when I couldn't sleep at 3 AM so I took out my phone and went on eBay:

The reason I ordered that in the middle of the night a month ago is that before going on eBay, I went on the list of Edinburgh Award winners, which I've now looked at so often I have it just about memorized, at least from 2000 onward.

Anyway, I was thinking about my quest to be an 00s comedy historian, and thought I'd work out how many of the Perrier (or whatever it's called in a given year)-winning shows I've seen or heard.

2000 - Rich Hall, Otis Lee Crenshaw

Don't know this one. I've heard Rich Hall, of course, on various Radio 4 things (he used to do The News Quiz a lot), and QI, and things like that. Pretty sure the only times I've heard his stand-up are on a few of those old mixed-bill Radio 4 things. It's never made me interested enough to seek out any more of it, but if I wanted to engage in completism about Perrier winners, this would be a thing to look up.

2001 - Matthew Holeness + Richard Ayoade + Alice Lowe, Garth Marenghi's Netherhead

Great sitcom. Would love to see the stage show. Please let me know if anyone's aware of it having been filmed, because I've never been able to find it.

2002 - Daniel Kitson, Something

One of the very few Kitson show's I've never heard, because as far as I can tell from my extremely extensive searching, recordings of it do not exist. If anyone knows where to find a recording of this, I'll let you name my first child.

2003 - Demetri Martin, If I...

This one I have seen. It's on YouTube in full, and I highly recommend it. It's Demetri Martin's first full show, has more of a structure and narrative than his later shows, which I think makes it my favourite Demetri Martin show, even though I like all his stuff.

2004 - Will Adamsdale, Jackson's Way

I used to mix this guy up with both Wil Anderson (very different guy with a fairly similar name) and Tom Basden (fairly similar guy with a very different name). I know the difference between those guys now but still know very little about this guy. Jackson's Way does not appear to have been filmed.

2005 - Laura Solon, Kopfraper's Syndrome

I know nothing whatsoever about this person, which I find odd. I've looked her up before and haven't found a lot. This show was apparently a character/sketch thing. Doesn't seem to have been filmed.

2006 - Phil Nichol, The Naked Racist

A video of this show was released on DVD and it's also on NextUp. I watched it a while ago and it's enormous fun. I don't think I can in good conscience recommend to it to anyone. I really really enjoyed watching it and I also think no one should ever see this thing.

2007 - Brendon Burns, So I Suppose THIS Is Offensive Now

So... this is the thing I decided at 3 AM to fix. The fact that I've seen or heard a lot of the Perrier-winning shows from the few years around the late 00s, but not this one. I looked at the list, saw a gap, Googled it, found that he'd released this show on DVD, and then a month later that DVD appeared on my parents' table.

I don't know much about Brendon Burns. I know he's Australian, and shows up in the clips of those 00s Edinburgh things that brought together various comedians (We Need Answers stage show, Mark Watson's marathons, Late 'n' Live). I know there was a fairly recent Chortle article about him crowdfunding his way back to rehab, so that's a pretty unfortunate position to see anyone in and I genuinely hope he ends up okay. And I know that, based on the title and the DVD cover, his 2007 Edinburgh show looks like it's probably fucking terrible. But I ordered it anyway, because I saw a chance to fill a gap in the Perrier-winning shows that I've seen.

2008 - David O'Doherty, Let's Comedy

This is available as an album on his Bandcamp page. I don't think it's as good as things he's made in later years, but it's still quite fucking good, I highly recommend this and also everything else David O'Doherty has ever done.

2009 - Tim Key, Slutcracker

I recently got to hear a recording of this and it was really lovely. I'm pretty sure it was sort of the beginning of the thing that Tim Key has perfected over the years. I enjoyed it a lot.

Well that's all the 00s show. There's then:

2010-2016

I've only seen one winning show from this era, and it's Bridget Christie's A Bic for Her. Well, I've seen her Netflix special called Stand Up for Her, which is pretty much that show. I watched it last year with my mother, and it was very very good. I highly recommend it.

2017 - Hannah Gadsby, Nannette; and John Robins, The Darkness of Robins

Both of these were filmed, I have seen both films, they're both brilliant. Two shows that are in the top few I've ever seen, I can absolutely see why they gave out two awards that year. I especially want to say that everyone talks about the ending of Nannette, and rightly so because it was a genuinely powerful and well-written ending, I re-watched it somewhat recently and thought it's unfortunate that people forget how very funny the first 45 minutes are as well. The whole thing's great.

2018 - Rose Matafeo, Horndog

She looked at the previous year, saw that if you're in a comedian/comedian couple that breaks up at the end of 2016 you can win an award for writing a show about that, and did an absolutely fantastic job of making her own. The video of this one is out there too, and is definitely recommended. She didn't go the same direction as John Robins (it actually isn't anything like Robins' show at all, I was not genuinely suggesting she'd copied anyone, just pointing out a mildly interesting trivia fact/parallel); this one was much cheerier and had multimedia and staged breakdowns and nostalgia and a big finale all kinds of different stuff that was enormous fun. Once again, highly recommended.

2019 - Jordan Brookes, I've Got Nothing

This show was sort of a combination, a "best of" from his previous few shows. So I see how it won, as it showcased all his best stuff at once. However, I don't think it was quite as good as those previous few shows, because they all had their own structure and conceits that got a bit lost when put together. I do recommend watching this one, but I really recommend watching all his stuff. A bunch of his shows are available to stream on NextUp, they're all very good, but if you watch the others then you can pretty much skip this one since you've seen a lot of the stuff in it anyway.

2022 - Sam Campbell, Comedy Show

It's on YouTube under a different name (Companion), but it's the same show. It's very very funny. I made a post months ago recommending it highly and knowing that probably no one on Tumblr will watch it. But it seems worth recommending again, now that everyone has fallen in love with him on Taskmaster. It's very very funny. I cannot emphasize that enough.

2023 - Ahir Shah, Ends

One of my favourite stand-up shows I've ever heard. Could not have deserved the win more. Now come on Alex, put him on Taskmaster like you did with last year's winner so everyone can fall in love with him too.

Okay, that's all of it. I also have a copy of the Al Murray Pub Landlord show that won in 1999, I started watching it ages ago but it was so shit that I could not get past the first few minutes. I'll try it again at some point, just for historical interest. But first, I will watch a different show that will probably be shit, by an Australian with an extremely aggressive DVD cover that I had delivered to my parents' house.