The City Life Comedian of the Year competition is held annually in Manchester, and sponsored by the City Life magazine.
The competition began in 1990, and has become one of the most prestigious comedy awards in the North West of England, mostly based on the subsequent success of many of its entrants and winners.
The competition is open to all, and early heats often have a broad mix of talent and ability. From each heat, the entrants are whittled down to eight finalists.
In the first year, the competition was won by Caroline Aherne, who went on to create Mrs Merton and The Royle Family and in subsequent years all three writers of the successful sitcom Phoenix Nights - Peter Kay, Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice - won the competition. Notable runners-up include Dave Gorman, Archie Kelly and Johnny Vegas.
Read more about City Life Comedian Of The Year: Winners
Famous quotes containing the words city, life, comedian and/or year:
“When the city gate catches fire, it’s the fish in the moat who suffer.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.”
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958)
“The golden mean in ethics, as in physics, is the centre of the system and that about which all revolve, and though to a distant and plodding planet it be an uttermost extreme, yet one day, when that planet’s year is completed, it will be found to be central.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)