If.comedy award

The if.comedy awards, formerly the Perrier comedy awards, are a group of prizes awarded annually to comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Directed and produced by Nica Burns,Cite web |author=Nica Burns |url=http://www.if.com/eddies/history.html |title=The Birth of the Comedy Awards: Nica Burns Looks Back |accessdate=2008-05-05] they are generally acknowledged as the best-known comedy accolades to be awarded during the Festival. The name of these awards derives from their sponsor since 2005, the Scottish-based bank Intelligent Finance.Cite news |url=http://www.if.com/eddies/pressrelease140606.pdf |title=Intelligent Sponsor for the Oscars of Comedy |work=Press release |publisher="if.com" |date=2006-06-14 |accessdate=2008-05-05] Cite web |url=http://www.if.com/eddies/ifcom.html |title=Intelligent Finance: Why We Are Doing It |publisher="if.com" |accessdate=2008-05-05 |quote=Why are we sponsoring the Comedy Awards? Well, the if.comedy awards will become synonymous with humour and wit - not traits you instantly associate with a bank. Here at Intelligent Finance, we celebrate and admire these qualities and are incredibly proud to sponsor these internationally acclaimed Awards.] They are also designated by the Internet domain name "if.com", and, briefly, in 2006, they were known as their alternative spelling if.comeddies. Prior to sponsorship by Intelligent Finance, they were sponsored by mineral water brand Perrier until 2005. [cite news |title=Perrier Ends Edinburgh Comedy Tie |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5078940.stm |work=BBC News |publisher="bbc.co.uk" |date=2006-06-14 |accessdate=2008-05-05] Initially, the prize awarded was a week's run at the New End Theatre in Hampstead and a small cheque. Winners now receive £7,500 and a run in London's West End. There has also been an award to the "Best Newcomer" since 1992.

Controversy

Before 2006, the then Perrier Comedy Awards were the subject of some controversy within the Edinburgh Fringe. In 1995 Perrier was bought by Nestlé, the subject of a long-running boycott based on alleged violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, leading to calls to boycott or to eliminate the awards taken up by some fringe venues and performers on an individual basis, such as former winners Emma Thompson, Steve Coogan, and Stewart Lee, and Rob Newman, who led a campaign of protest against the award, beginning in 2001, called Baby Milk Action).cite news |title=Boycott Perrier: Newman Calls for Corporate Protest |url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2001/07/24/3217/boycott_perrier |work=Chortle: The UK Comedy Guide |date=2001-07-24 |accessdate=2009-05-05] cite news |author=Imogen Tilden |title=Perrier Judges Name the Cream of Edinburgh's Comedy |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/edinburghfestival2001/story/0,10640,540846,00.html |work=guardian.co.uk |date=2001-08-22 |accessdate=2008-05-05] Cite web |url=http://www.babymilkaction.org/ |title=Baby Milk Action |accessdate=2008-05-05] Cite news |url=http://www.babymilkaction.org/www.babymilkaction.org/press/press14june06.html |title=Nestlé Pulls Plug on Perrier Award |work=Press Release |publisher="babymilkaction.org" |date=2006-06-14 |accessdate=2008-05-05] Cite news |url=http://www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/yoursay/articles/yoursay121.htm |title=Feature: It's the End of the Perriers, and Nobody's Laughing |work=Generation Why: Your Say |publisher=Oxfam |date=2006-09-13 |accessdate=2008-05-05 |quote=Unappreciative of Nestlé's entrepreneurial spirit, Fringe comedians turned their caustic gaze onto the hand that feeds. Previous winners such as Emma Thompson and Steve Coogan led calls to boycott the company. Maverick comic Stewart Lee told audiences 'every time you laugh, a baby dies'. ... Now, when they should be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the awards, Nestlé has finally bottled out – but it says it has nothing to do with the protests. Comedian and political activist Mark Thomas, Perrier-nominated in 1992, is amongst the cynics. ... 'It makes little logical sense for a successful sponsorship deal to terminate if it is, well, successful, and attracts the right sort of publicity', says Thomas. 'Over the past few years the protest against Nestlé was drawing consistent criticism and attention in the press. Each award ceremony was becoming more and more security conscious for fear of protesters getting in. Every year the debate reopened as to the suitability of Nestlé as a sponsor. If the relationship between the comedy awards in Edinburgh and Nestlé was working fine, why walk out on it?' Call me a cynic, but I think most people would agree with him. ... Last year The Guardian reported that Nestlé had been voted 'the world's least responsible company'. It's still the most boycotted company in Britain, and there's little indication that this will change anytime soon. You almost have to admire its sheer single-minded determination. What other company would abandon its own legendary comedy award, rather than simply reconsider the staggering callousness of its own actions?] The Nestlé boycott also led to comedians' support of the alternative Tap Water Awards, promoting crucial access to safe supplies of drinking water and sanitation; these awards were suspended for 2007, due to self-acknowledged success in "having beat Nestlé".Cite web |url=http://www.tapwaterawards.org/ |title=Tap Water Awards: Having Beat Nestlé, We're Having a Rest |accessdate=2008-05-05 |quote=Winners: 2004: Stewart Lee: Denounced Nestlé & Perrier daily in his show - 'Every time you laugh a baby dies'; History: The Tap Water Awards are not about comedy or comedians; the only link is that they were set up after the media became aware of the Bongo Club's decision not to participate in the Perrier Comedy awards in 2001. This boycott culminated in the creation of the Tap Water Awards. The concept was launched at the end of the 2001 Fringe Festival to highlight the fact that Perrier was owned by Nestlé [,] the manufacturer of baby milk substitutes in developing countries.]

Separately, the 2002 awards were criticised for being the second consecutive year in which no female acts were shortlisted.Cite news |author=Arika Akbar |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/news/saunders-bemoans-absence-of-female-standup-comedians-760104.html |title=Saunders Bemoans Absence of Female Standup Comedians |work=The Independent |publisher="independent.co.uk" (Arts & Entertainment) |date=2007-11-23 |accessdate=2008-05-05 |quote= [Jennifer] Saunders, a 49-year-old graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama, said: 'There aren't enough stand-up female comics. Stand-up is and always has been macho and, therefore, it's difficult for women to break into it.' ... Her view is borne out by evidence from the industry. The If.Comedy Awards, formerly the Perrier Awards, recognise the best new stand-ups at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. They are traditionally dominated by men – Jenny Eclair and Laura Solon are the only women to win the main prize in the competition's history, although Emma Thompson was in the Cambridge Footlights ensemble that won it in 1981.]

ee also

*List of if.comedy and Perrier comedy award winners

Notes

Further reading

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/edinburgh_festival/150828.stm#andwherearetheynow Talents Who Sparkled in Comedy's Hall of Fame] . "BBC News", August 24, 1998. Accessed May 5, 2008. "Lists previous recipients of the (then) Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe: "BBC News Online has tracked down the winners, checked out how their fortunes have fared over the years, and got tips for future hopefuls from some of the big names. Click on the list of winners below to find out where they are now."

External links

* [http://www.if.com/eddies/index.html Official site]