The cliche about Edinburgh fringe comedy is that, instead of jokes, it’s all tears and dead loved ones. No one ever said that about the Edinburgh comedy award ceremony – but they could now, after an event on Saturday marked as much by high emotion as laughs. Ahir Shah’s winning show, Ends, is about his grandfather’s migration to the UK, the changing face of multicultural Britain, and the comic’s imminent wedding. Accepting the award – the most prestigious in live comedy – he was visibly moved, although that didn’t preclude a choice quip about this year’s Indian double whammy (with Mumbai-based Urooj Ashfaq winning the best newcomer prize). “Rishi,” said the 32-year-old, “is really delivering for the community!”
It was a deserving win for a cracking show, one that – almost as an aside – argues for Britain as the least racist country in the world. All the more remarkable that Shah arrived in Edinburgh with a work-in-progress (therefore not eligible for the award), its development delayed by the death in April of his director Adam Brace. The show was hastily re-categorised mid-festival.
