THE

AWARD

Photos by Steve Ullathorne, Vincent Lewis, Steve Ullathorne

THE 2008 AWARDS Photo by Steve Ullathorne The 2008 Awards were introduced by Omid Djalili and presented by Malcolm's son Frank and sister Clare at the Gilded Balloon venue in Edinburgh during the Late ‘n’ Live show produced by Karen Koren on the night of Friday 22nd August. The 2008 Award went to Edward Aczel, project manager for a marketing company in Aylesbury, who once heckled Malcolm at a London University gig. A surprise 2007 Malcolm Hardee Award was also given retrospectively to controversial musical act Doktor CocaColaMcDonalds. (A previous one-off Malcolm Hardee Award was made to Reggie Watts in 2005, the year of Malcolm's death.) The five 2008 nominees were: Edward Aczel, Peter Buckley Hill, Aindrias de Staic, The Fringe Box Office and Otto Kuhnle Photo by Steve Ullathorne Clip from Edward Aczel's 2008 Fringe show Do I Really Have to Communicate With You? - CLICK HERE BBC News Online interview with Ed Aczel - CLICK HERE Nominee Press Release and the report in The Stage. Winners Press Release and the report in BBC News Online.

THE 2008 JUDGES WERE... TIM ARTHUR, editor of the comedy section in London magazine Time Out ; he was on the judging panel of the 2007 and 2008 if.comedy awards. KATE COPSTICK, the doyenne of Fringe comedy critics. She says she has a video of herself on camera with Malcolm's legendary bollocks: “It’s something I did for TV years ago in Edinburgh and the memory is one I still treasure”. JOHN FLEMING co-wrote Malcolm’s autobiography I Stole Freddie Mercury’s Birthday Cake and they co-edited the anthology Sit-Down Comedy. DOMINIC MAXWELL, comedy critic of The Times; he was an if.comedy awards judge in 2006 and 2007. JAY RICHARDSON freelance comedy critic and winner of the Allen Wright Award for arts journalism.