Family shows tipped to shine in Foster's first comedy awards

Nominations for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, the 30-year-old awards sponsored this year for the first time by the Australian beer brand, will be unveiled after a meeting of the judging panel this morning.

Candidates will be considered for both the main award, for Best Comedy Show, with a 10,000 prize, and Best Newcomer, which earns 5,000 for the winner. A new panel prize also celebrates the act that best captures "the comedy spirit" at the Fringe.

Comedian Des Bishop's show My Dad Was Nearly James Bond is said to be typical of a year when comedy has largely turned its back on politics in favour of the family. It is centred on his father, Mike Bishop, a model and actor who missed out starring in the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

While the year is marked by a strong slate of both British Asian and women comedians, two other acts who dwell on their dads — Russell Kane, and Greg Davies — were seen as potential nominees by comedy critics.

"Men and their fathers is becoming a very big area of discussion or material for stand-ups," said the awards' founding producer, Nica Burns. "As a woman I have found it an extraordinary door into the male psyche.

"It was absolutely fascinating to see, in Des Bishop's case, that it was a very close, loving father whom he was paying a tribute to, for the fact he gave up his own career to look after his chidren.

"It is a spectacularly unpolitical year, with very few people doing very topical material. It's the year of the family actually, with very little about political issues or the government."

Greg Davies' solo debut, Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog, comes after his Edinburgh appearances with the sketch group We Are Klang. He could qualify either for the main or newcomer's award — along with the 19-year-old US comedian Bo Burnham.

Burnham, a precocious talent who has been a cult hit on YouTube, with tens of millions of hits from fans who know his comic songs word for word, is in Edinburgh for the first time, with a show described as an extraordinary tour-de-force.

The women comedians who have made waves in the comedy world this year range from Nina Conti — the comic, actor and ventriloquist, whose show includes her memorable "Scottish granny" puppet — to Roisin Conaty, a relative unknown, seen as a rising star, with her show Hero, Warrior, Fireman, Liar.

The winners of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards are announced on Saturday.

Women who have won over the reviewers this year also include Sarah Pascoe, Sarah Millican, and Josie Long.

Other shows said to have a good chance range from The Boy with Tape on his Face, by comedian Sam Wills, a hit with audiences in Australia, to Late Night Gimp Fight, one of the few sketch shows at the top of critics' lists this year.