Five emerging acts from the West Midlands have been shortlisted for the prestigious Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024.

A collaboration between the long-running festival and The Glee Club Birmingham, the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024 takes place at The Glee on Thursday 10 October 2024.

The annual award was set-up in 2014 to recognise, support and celebrate new and rising talent from the region, with this year’s shortlist featuring Dom Bant, Lin Smith, Rich Spalding, Tom Towelling and Gareth Williams.

The night, which will also be livestreamed via NextUp Comedy, also features a very special closing set from award-winning comedian, writer and spoken word artist, Sarah Callaghan.

Hailing from Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, and now residing in Coleshill, Warwickshire, Dom Bant made his stage debut in 2019 after completing a stand-up comedy course. With a style that has been called ‘deadpan and self deprecating,’ he says: “I mainly talk about what annoys me and my experience of relationships, parenthood [and] being a Beta man in a world of Trump and Farage apologists.”

Lin Smith made her stand-up debut five years ago, at The Firefly’s ComedyJAM night, in her home town of Worcester – a night she graduated to overseeing in 2021. Describing herself as a “recovering musical comic” she says her comedy aims to be “offensively fast, lightly fruity, powerfully erratic,” and takes inspiration from such distinctive figures as Julia Davis, Emo Philips, Diane Morgan and Reeves and Mortimer.

Rich Spalding was born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, studied at the University of Birmingham, and now resides in Hackney, East London. A copywriter by day, he co-hosts the Our Dads Died podcast (with Tom Gerken). Rich describes his career highlights as “… winning the Panel Prize at the Beat the Frog World Series Final 2022 [in Manchester] and making my Edinburgh Fringe debut at the Pleasance Courtyard this year.”

Having initially made a name for himself as one half of Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2018 nominated double-act Good Kids, Tom Towelling has been increasingly stepping into the limelight as a solo act over the last year, and recently won the Musical Comedy Award 2024. A resident of Hall Green, Birmingham, Tom is a regular at Moseley’s Deep Friend Comedy Club. Citing John Kearns and Mr Bean as key inspirations, he describes his comedy style as “deliciously rich and creamy.”

Raised in Shropshire, Gareth Williams first got a taste for comedy as a member of Bath Spa University’s Comedy Society, The Idle Playthings. Later moving to Brum, he launched “Birmingham's original LGBTQ+ comedy night”, Queer As Joke, in 2021. “I just tell stories from the perspective of an overweight, underprepared millennial, with a bit of a saucy flare,” he says.

Since debuting a decade ago, the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award has handed out it’s ‘Mug Of Victory’ trophy to such now established acts as Josh Pugh (2015) and Celya AB (2019), while the nominee list has included Eric Rushton (winner of 2023’s Channel 4 Sean Lock Comedy Award), Lindsey Santoro (NextUp’s Biggest Award In Comedy 2023) and Jack Kirwan, aka Gary Powndland. Iraqi/Brummie Hasan Al-Habib is the award’s most recent recipient.

Birmingham Comedy Festival runs from Friday 4 to Sunday 13 October 2024 and features headline appearances from Sarah Millican, Milton Jones, Rachel Parris, George Lewis, Richard Blackwood and more.

The Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award 2024, takes place at The Glee Club, The Arcadian, Birmingham, on Thursday 10 October. The night is compered by James Cook. Tickets £12 (£10 NUS). For more information see: bhamcomfest.co.uk