The shortlist has been announced for the annual Edinburgh comedy award, and it’s a list that majors in whimsy. With an act hymning his belief in healing crystals, another dreamily counting sheep and a third whose show is about “mystery and messages” – and that’s before we even get to the loopy DIY comedy of TV veteran Spencer Jones – this year’s “Oscars of comedy” nominees (for both the best show and best newcomer prize) suggest an art form exploding with creativity but also increasingly oriented towards woo-woo: in full flight, perhaps, from our troubled times.
The award favourite is Mexican-American comic Lara Ricote, co-star of Sam Campbell’s Channel 4 mockumentary Make That Movie and former fringe best newcomer. Ricote’s Inkling is a remarkable hour about picking up on the messages that come one’s way, and how that’s complicated by, in the 29-year-old’s case, being hard of hearing.
