Comedians The Birthday Girls are calling on Londoners to enter our “Evening Stand Up” jokes contest, hailing it as “the X Factor for comedy.”
Trio Beattie Edmondson — the daughter of comics Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson — Rose Johnson and Camille Ucan are the judges of our competition, which closes tonight at midnight.
As part of this year’s Comic Relief campaign, we are asking Londoners to send in their best jokes. The top 10 will be read out at the Women Stand Up comedy gig on International Women’s Day, March 8, at the Leicester Square Theatre.
All 10 will be printed in the Standard, and the winner of the best joke will be given tickets to the show, which will include performances from Bridget Christie, Shappi Khorsandi, Athena Kugblenu and The Birthday Girls.
Ucan, 29, said: “I know there is a lot of pressure to come up with something good. But you will never know how it feels to have your joke read out live on stage if you do not enter this. It’s exhilarating.
“This is like the X Factor for jokes — it is a big deal. And we are the judges. I will be Louis Walsh, please.”
The Birthday Girls' favourite joke
"Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight. Blue sky at night, day."
Johnson, 31, added: “We are very stringent judges. I would be Simon Cowell, for sure. Beattie would be Sharon Osbourne. But I’d say to Londoners, you have got nothing to lose.”
The trio, who are performing a 10-minute sketch at the gig — which has been curated in partnership with Oxfam — said they were proud to be representing women in comedy through the event.
They added: “As women in comedy, we are always happy to champion women performing. Obviously we are women so we like to celebrate women.” Johnson said that it was a privilege to be involved in Comic Relief and to help the various projects that the charity supports.
“It is really important now more than ever with cuts and austerity measures to really vital services like women’s refuges or homelessness that those issues are still seen as important and are brought to the forefront of people’s minds,” she said.
“It is easy to forget those things in this current shitstorm of global politics. I don’t think it is necessarily the job of charities to make up that shortfall but to me it’s about keeping people talking about those issues.”
Ucan added: “Comic Relief or Red Nose Day is ingrained in my generation. To be a part of it now in this way feels really cool.”
Over the past five years, Comic Relief has provided £5 million for the Evening Standard’s Dispossessed Fund to support hundreds of grassroots projects tackling social exclusion and helping young people across London.
It has pledged to make a substantial donation to the fund again this year.
To submit your joke visit: standard.co.uk/eveningstandup
Terms apply. Promotion closes at 23.59 on March 2.
To order your free fundraising pack, please log on to: rednoseday.com
