Stephen Trumble (People's Champion in Amused Moose National New Comic Award 2018)

Stephen Trumble gained the People's Champion title in Amused Moose National New Comic Award 2018, having found himself in a hole a few years earlier, so decided to dig himself into a career in stand up comedy.

He originally studied as a filmmaker in Bournemouth, later finding work as a storyboard artist in London. In 2015, after a breakup, Stephen found himself suffering from depression, and it was during the following two years nosing-up on CBT and antidepressants that he finally found the nerve to get up on stage and try stand up, a dream he'd secretly harboured since university - he spent the first year writing and haunting the back of comedy rooms.

Stephen's third ever gig was an open-mic in Greenwich Village whilst celebrating his 30th birthday in New York. Performing in a basement in the early evening to merely a handful of other comics, this solidified his love for stand up in the city that birthed so many of his comedy heroes. His fifth gig was at the London Comedy Store King Gong show where we went on first and miraculously lasted three minutes before losing the crowd with a John Stuart Mill joke. Since then Stephen has become a well-known face on the London open-mic circuit.

He became a semi-finalist at the Leicester Square New Comedian Of The Year, then in 2018 he beat 160 hopefuls to become the winner of the Comedy Virgins Max Turner Prize, leading on to his success in the Amused Moose National New Comic Award.

Channelling the cathartic, high-energy, confessional style of his favourite comics, Stephen has found his groove in speaking in an open, positive, demystifying way about his own depression. Self-deprecating without being miserablist, shouty but always with a smile, in his words; "not clean, but not mean". He has performed comedy in London, Brighton, Oxford, Edinburgh and New York. He performed in his first Edinburgh Fringe show last year, as part of split-show 'On The Edge'. The show regularly performed to large or packed-out audiences and glowing response. In 2018 he returned to the Fringe with a half-hour split show 'Hoo-Ha!' with Max Turner and Funny Women finalist Lily Phillips.