So You Think You're Funny opens for 2014

Applications for this year's So You Think You're Funny awards open at midday today. The award, which focuses on new and emerging comics, is open to anyone new to stand-up comedy, over 18, who has not peformed regularly before June last year (see here for the rules in detail). Considered the leading amateur comedy competition in the UK, So You Think You're Funny has helped to launch the careers of a whole host of big name stars, including Peter Kay, Lee Mack, Sarah Millican, Johnny Vegas, Dylan Moran and Jack Whitehall. 

The competition begins in earnest in spring, with a series of regional showcases in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Dublin, Brighton and Nottingham, kicking off in May. Applicants should rush to get their applications in, as places at these showcases disappear fast. The most promising acts from these are selected for the heats, and will go on to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a panel of judges. The winners of each heat will go on to compete in the grand final on 21 August – the best nine comics perform their funniest seven minutes to industry judges and a full audience in the Gilded Balloon’s Debating Hall. The winner receives £5,000 and a trip to Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival.

"The final was the biggest gig I had ever done," comments 1999's winner David O'Doherty, now a regular face on television screens, and a successful touring comic. "Peter Kay hosted it and Russell Howard, Jimmy Carr, Andy Zaltzman and Josie Long were in the final. Winning it definitely gave me the confidence to keep writing the sort of stupid crappy jokes and songs I still do today," he says. 

“For me it was the single most important thing I did in my career," comments Jason Byrne, who was a finalist in 1996. "It helped me leap from a lot of the crap in the business and gave me the extra push I needed, but it also changed my life forever.” Want to be in with a chance of being crowned King or Queen of the emerging comics? Apply now.

From the archive

INTERVIEWS

 
Jason Byrne: Master of Puppets 

David O'Doherty: Come Flyer With Me