The Stand Out Young Comedian of the Year Competition takes place during the Liverpool Comedy Festival each summer and is sponsored by the Liverpool Echo and 02. The Competition showcases the talents of the best new young comedians from across the North West. The winner is given the chance to perform at the Best of Liverpool Event, the closing night of the comedy festival to audiences of over 1000 people.
Stand Out Competition 2008
This years competition was another roaring success with the semi-finalists being whittled down to 10 finalists who performed at the packed out Royal Court Theatre as part of the Comedy Festival in June. It was the teenagers of Sefton who reigned on the night sweeping the board by scooping first place, both runners-up places, school of the year and outstanding achievement awards.
The judging panel for the competition included culture supremo and television mogul Phil Redmond and ECHO editor Alistair Machray. The event was compered by comedian and Radio City star John Bishop.
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First place went to 15-year-old Sam Inkson from St Michael's Catholic High School in Crosby; runners-up prizes were awarded to Glenn Wild, also 15, from Bootle's Hillside High School and 14-year-old Jack Maguire from Litherland High School.
Holy Family High School in Crosby was given the School of the Year Award and 15-year-old Holy Family pupil Muriel Hayes-Sinclair was handed the Special Achievement Award.
''Not only is Stand Out a great initiative to introduce kids into the world of performing and writing comedy it is also a brilliant avenue for them to direct their talents knowing that there is an end result - the opportunity to perform in a final on one of the most famous stages in the country the Royal Court. Hosting the final this year was a great honour and the standard of all the entrants was exceptionally high - so much so I am sure we will being Stand Out graduates on the UK circuit in the near future pushing fossils like me to make sure we are at the top of our game to keep up!''
Comedian John Bishop The winner and runners up not only won tickets to The 3 Fellas Gig with Ardal O’Hanlon, Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan at Liverpool Arena but also got to meet the acts backstage after the gig.
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stand Out winners 2008 with the 3 fellas. Photo by Andy Hollingworth
Well done to everyone involved!
Stand Out Young Comedian of the Year 2002 -2008
Matt Challenor from Gatacre Comprehensive, Nathan McMullen from Woodchurch high school, Joe Nunnery from Maricourt High school, Andrew Crawford from Whitby High School, Faye Burnell from King George High School, Dan Shea from Cowley Language College, Conor McKenna and Peter Harris from St Mary's College and Sam Inkson from St Michael's Catholic High have been the 9 winners of the competition so far.
