Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024

UPDATE: Congratulations to Tom Towelling for winning the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024.

Tom scooped the award at a packed Glee Club where the Judging Panel also Commended Dom Bant.

Find out more ...

◼ Chortle: Review: Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024.

◼ British Comedy Guide: Live News: Tom Towelling wins Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award

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The West Mids’ biggest comedy prize is back!

A hand-picked selection of the very best emerging acts from across the region compete for the prestigious annual title, introduced by your host for the evening, James Cook, and with a special set from award-winning comedian, writer and celebrated spoken word artist, Sarah Callaghan.

Battling it out for the prestigious award are: Dom Bant, Lin Smith, Rich Spalding, Tom Towelling and Gareth Williams.

Previous winners include Josh Pugh (English Comedian Of The Year, Hypothetical, Rosie Jones's Disability Comedy Extravaganza, Live At The Apollo), Celya AB (Chortle Best Newcomer 2022, BBC Comedy Award 2021 Finalist, The Guilty Feminist, Live At The Apollo), and Andrew McBurney (Gary Powndland and Friends), while 2023's winner was Hasan Al-Habib.

Who will be 2024's winner?

NEW for 2024: Livestream the award via NextUpComedy.com

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About The Shortlisted Acts:

Dom Bant: Hailing from Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, and now residing in Coleshill, Dom made his stage debut in 2019 after completing a stand-up comedy course. With a style that has been called ‘deadpan and self deprecating,’ he says: “I mainly talk about what annoys me and my experience of relationships, parenthood [and] being a Beta man in a world of Trump and Farage apologists.”
◼ Instagram @Bantontherun

Lin Smith: Lin made her stand-up debut five years ago, at The Firefly’s ComedyJAM night, in her home town of Worcester – a night she graduated to overseeing in 2021. Describing herself as a “recovering musical comic” she says her comedy aims to be “offensively fast, lightly fruity, powerfully erratic,” and takes inspiration from such distinctive figures as Julia Davis, Emo Philips, Diane Morgan and Reeves and Mortimer.
◼ Instagram @doubtbeat

Rich Spalding: Rich was born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, studied at the University of Birmingham, and now resides in Hackney, East London. A copywriter by day, he co-hosts the Our Dads Died podcast (with Tom Gerken). He describes his career highlights as “… winning the Panel Prize at the Beat the Frog World Series Final 2022 [in Manchester] and making my Edinburgh Fringe debut at the Pleasance Courtyard this year.”
◼ Instagram @richspalding11

Tom Towelling: Having initially made a name for himself as one half of Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2018 nominated double-act Good Kids, Tom has been increasingly stepping into the limelight as a solo act over the last year, and recently won the Musical Comedy Award 2024. A resident of Hall Green, Birmingham, Tom is a regular at Moseley’s Deep Friend Comedy Club. Citing John Kearns and Mr Bean as key inspirations, he describes his comedy style as “deliciously rich and creamy.”
◼ Instagram @tomtowellingcomedy

Gareth Williams: Raised in Shropshire, Gareth Williams first got a taste for comedy as a member of Bath Spa University’s Comedy Society, The Idle Playthings. Later moving to Brum, he launched “Birmingham's original LGBTQ+ comedy night”, Queer As Joke, in 2021. “I just tell stories from the perspective of an overweight, underprepared millennial, with a bit of a saucy flare,” he says.
◼ Instagram @garethtellsjokes

With thanks to The Glee Club Birmingham, The Arcadian, NextUp Comedy and What's On Magazine.