Amused Moose Comedy’s NATIONAL NEW COMIC AWARD 2020

Entering Amused Moose Comedy’s NATIONAL NEW COMIC AWARD 2020

Qualifying rounds take place online, followed by semi-finals on stage in London and final in London or at the Edinburgh Fringe (tbc)

ENTRIES OPEN ON 1 DECEMBER AND CLOSE BY 14 JANUARY.  THE SOONER YOU ENTER THE BETTER - to get the maximum exposure with online industry panellists, plus also avoiding the last-minute rush with the risk of the semi-final dates you want being full.

Amused Moose Comedy’s National New Comic awards is extremely well respected in the comedy industry; indeed it has been referred to as prestigious, and for many it is the preferred competition for discovering new talent. 

The objective of Amused Moose Comedy’s National New Comic awards is to discover the comedy stars of tomorrow; our mission is to seek out "star quality" amongst emerging talent and provide opportunities for newish comedy performers (stand-ups, musical comedy, character comedians, humorous spoken word & poetry, sketch, and speciality comic acts) to develop their comedy careers by gaining exposure and quality stage time.  So a large number of entrants are helped to take their first step up the ladder to fame and fortune, following Jimmy Carr, Greg Davies, Nina Conti, Jack Whitehall, Sarah Millican, Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan, Andi Osho, Simon Amstell, Rhod Gilbert, Alex Zane, Mark Watson, Matthew Horne (in Matt & Mackinnon), Alex Horne, Rob Beckett, Katherine Ryan and many more.

All the Amused Moose Comedy’s National New Comic awards shows and showcases are produced by Amused Moose Comedy, who believe that it is important to provide a platform for new comedians every year to be talentspotted.  We also believe it is much better that we invest in providing opportunities for hundreds of entrants to be seen by talentscouts, and around 60 comedy performers to be 'discovered' and showcased, resulting in more paid work and moving up the comedy ladder, rather than one person simply getting a chunky cheque. 

The final will be held in June or July in London, or mid-August at the Edinburgh Fringe.  Finalists and semi-finalists form the pool of talent from which performers may be invited to be showcased in the Amused Moose Comedy Awards showcase in the summer.  The locations and dates of these will be notified to everyone potentially involved at the very earliest opportunity.

All of the entries will be watched online by dozens of people working behind the scenes in the comedy industry, in the UK and around the world.  While they are wearing their talentscout hats they will select about 60 entrants to go into the live semifinals. 

In the live semifinals and Final the audience cast votes, alongside the industry panels who include producers, casting directors, managers/agents, promoters/bookers, reviewers and journalists, television and radio commissioners, comedy festival programmers etc.

The finalists and semifinalists get significant highlevel exposure, because dozens in the audience at the final and showcases are movers and shakers in various areas of the comedy industry from around the world as well as the UK, in addition to the industry panel who ratify the votes. 
 
Entries open on 1 December, closing on 14 January.

  • Enter by submitting a link to a 8-10 minute clip (or two 5 minute clips) from your comedy set, uploaded onto YouTube or Vimeo; it is recommended that you edit the beginning so that the upload starts with you going onstage, rather than being introduced by the compere.
    Clips must have been filmed in a comedy venue, and it is essential that you can be clearly heard and seen, although the quality of the image is not crucial. 

  • Semifinals (10 minutes) will be live, taking place in comedy venues in central London on Saturdays 8, 15, 22, 29 February and 7 March, plus wildcard semi-finals on 28 March and 4 April. 
    The audience will include friends and supporters, comedygoers, plus comedy industry talentscouts, who all vote.

  • The Final will happen in June or July in London or mid-August at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the audience will include friends and supporters, Fringe comedygoers, plus a large contingent of comedy industry guests, who all vote.  The location and date will be notified to everyone potentially involved at the very earliest opportunity.

NOTES and TERMS/CONDITIONS OF ENTRY:

  1. Entrants should be resident in the British Isles or ROI, be 18 or over by 1 June 2020.

  2. Entrants must not have won a trophy in a previous year, nor have entered three times previously.

  3. Professional comedians, anyone gigging for more than 4 years and/or having proactive comedy representation (other than someone who is only reactive, and does admin such as billing/diary/negotiating/forwarding work enquiries etc) do not meet our entry criteria.

  4. The same material can be included in each round.

  5. A DI box and ipod/mp3/CD player, power and projector are usually available (but performers with these are expected to have an alternative to using these if need be).

  6. The exact nature of prizes varies from year to year dependent on sponsor/media partnerships, and management deals and performance/tour opportunities are naturally also dependent on circumstances beyond our control, but as a minimum the three winners receive a shiny Moose trophy and loads of exposure.

  7. Votes for the semi-finals and Final are cast by all the audience as well as by a distinguished comedy industry* panel, but our decision is always final and the producers/panel have the casting vote in the case of a tie.

  8. The semi-final venue is wheelchair accessible, but we cannot guarantee otherwise, so please check with us before entering if this could be an issue for you.

  9. Participants are expected at all times to be supportive of each other and the compere, perform material that is ‘original’ and not deemed offensive, to behave professionally, arrive on time and stay until the end, and cover their own costs and expenses.

  10. By entering, entrants agree to co-operate by taking part in PR/promotion etc as reasonably required, and that photography and filming may be used for websites, archive, broadcast and various platforms, etc, and are vested in Amused Moose Comedy as rights worldwide in perpetuity.

In recent years the comedy industry who have been involved as panellists* includes talentscouts from BBC, ITV, Channel4, Avalon, Assembly Festival, Babycow, Bath Comedy Festival, BSkyB, Andrew Roach Talent, Babycow, Beyond Compere, Big Pond (Australia), Big Talk, Brighton Fringe, Brown Eyed Boy, Canal Cafe, Candid Casting, Catface, Cat Laughs (Ireland), Chambers Management, Cheryl Hayes, CKP, Comedy Central, Comedy Day (USA), Comedy International Conference, Comedy Unit, Comedy Store, Comedy Zoo, Cosmic Comedy, Cracker Comedy (Australia), Curtis Brown, Dawn Sedgwick, Debi Allen, Ebdon Management, Ents24, Festival Republic, Fruitcake Casting, Fudgepark, Funny Women, Gag Reflex, Galton Agency, Get Comedy, Glorious Talent, Hat Trick, Hannah Layton, HD Management, Hubbard Casting, Independent Talent, IWMP, John Noel, Just For Laughs (Montreal), JLA, Just The Tonic, Kennedy Casting, Kilimanjaro, Kingbert, Laughing Stock, Lisa Richards, Lisa Thomas, Live Nation, Mary Tobin Presents (Australia), McIntyre Entertainments, Mick Perrin Worldwide, Melbourne Festival, Mirth Control, Momentum Talent, MTV, MW Artists, NBC, New Zealand Comedy Festival, Noel Gay, Objective, Off The Kerb, PBJ, Performing Artistes, Pleasance, RBM, Real Talent, Red Comedy, Retort TV, Roar, Rough Cut, Rush Of Laughter, Soho Theatre, Sony, So Television, Sue Terry Voices, Talented Artists, Talk Back, Tiger Aspect, Token (Australia), Troika, UKTV, Underbelly, United Agents, United Talent, UTC, Vivienne Smith, Working Title .... plus journalists/reviewers from The Times, Scotsman, List, Metro, Standard, Huffington Post, Mirror, Press Association, Guardian, Time Out, Mail On Sunday, Chortle, Telegraph, Edinburgh Guide, One 4 Review, Londonist, Broadway Baby, Broadway World, British Comedy Guide, Observer .....

VERY IMPORTANT, after you have entered:
To ensure we can contact you after all entries have been viewed online by the international panel of comedy talentscouts, it is your responsibility to go to the SUBSCRIBE page on www.amusedmoose.com, then

  • Key in your email address. 
    (Please please please, do NOT provide a hotmail, outlook or aol address which are all increasingly so unreliable; if you provide any of those, our emails about your entry etc cannot be guaranteed to reach you.  So, quickly migrate to gmail or yahoo and use that new email address in your entry and everywhere comedy too).
        If our Subscribe page says you're already registered, continue anyway,
        ensuring that your email address,     stagename and mobile number are correct.
  • Add your stage name
  • Add your mobile number, plus any other information you wish
  • In the PERFORMER section tick the 'AmusedMoose competition/Open Spot' box, and any others which are legitimate (for example do not tick ‘Professional Stand-Up’ – if you are, you will not meet the entry criteria - nor Talentscout or Manager/Agent, etc etc)
  • Save
  • It's ESSENTIAL, if asked to, to click on links etc to confirm that your details are correct because only then will your 'record' go live.

Then you will be sure that we have up-to-date and correct contact details for you, provided you don't unsubscribe from AmusedMoose.com

HOW TO ENTER: Click on bit.ly/amnnca2020
(If that link won't work for you, please try https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/amnnca2020 and then if there is still a problem do report it to Comedy@AmusedMoose.com)  
     NB: Confirmation that your entry has been accepted is automated during the final stage of the entry process.

Thank you for your interest, and we're very much looking forward to seeing you in what already looks like being another great year for brilliant emerging comedy talent.  Meanwhile please don't email us unless it is really important, while we are very busy processing hundreds of entries.

Hils Jago
Producer/Director of Amused Moose Comedy Awards