Mark Nelson Crowned Scottish Comedian of the Year 2006

The patter, banter, craic – call it what you will – Scots have the best sense of humour in the world, the Scottish comedy scene is great and on Sunday 24th September 20060 at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow, as part of the Merchant City Festival, we celebrated it in style by giving away £1000 to the winners of this years Scottish Comedian of the Year competition, which was won by Dumfriesian Mark Nelson, who beat off Dundonian Paul Pirie into 2nd place and Bearsden's Neil McFarlane into 3rd.

BBC Children in Need presenter and multi award winning comedian Des Clarke introduced the final 9 contenders in the nationwide search for the finest comedy talent in Scotland. Not only did they have to make the audience of over 300 laugh, but to win the title they had to impress our celebrity judging panel with their good looks and originality.

Almost 60 competitors took part at heats in places as diverse as Helensburgh, Forfar, Twechar and Glasgow, where audiences were asked to select their winners to go forward to the gala final at the Old Fruitmarket.

Our finalists were a diverse bunch representing all that’s good about Scottish comedy in 2006. From straight-forward stand-up to character acts - it was all there. 

So who were they? There’s The Wee Man – a ned character act with a twist;   Scott MacDhomhnaill giving us a taste of gaelic Scotland; surrealist high paced comedy from Paul Pirie; Geordie stand-up Simon Brown (he’s lived in Scotland a long time); the dark humour of  Mark Nelson; the posh comedy stylings of Neil McFarlane; Our one and only female finalist Wendy Wason; the unpredictable Obie and the devilish Derek Divine.

Judges for the event were Clyde 1FM breakfast host George Bowie, BBC Radio Scotland comedy producer Margaret Ann Docherty, chortle.co.uk proprietor Steve Bennett, comedy reviewer for The Herald and List Jay Richardson and Billy Connolly's favourite comedian Des Mclean.

Mark, Paul and Neil have each secured their own showcase gigs at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival 2007.

Here's a review of the event

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