Laffalang Gang begin search for 2016’s best sketch

The Philip Richardson Comedy Award is to return, it has been announced.

The competition invites aspiring North East comedy writers to pen a sketch, with the best entries being professionally performed by popular local comedy troupe the Laffalang Gang.

Laffalang writer Ed Waugh will kick off this year’s search for the winning sketch on 3 April at The Stand, where he will host a sketch writing crash course for burgeoning comedy writers.

Potential entrants have until 29 May to submit their sketch ideas, with the best six being selected by comics Jason Cook and Gavin Webster, before being worked on by Ed Waugh.

The finalists will then be performed by the Laffalang Gang at The Stand on 7 August. The winner will be decided by a Sunday For Sammy trustee panel.

Last year’s inaugural competition was won by Morpeth’s Kevin Wilkinson, whose cafe-set sketch was performed by newsreaders Pam Royle and Ian Payne, and Emmerdale’s Laura Norton at The Stand, Newcastle.

The comedy writing competition was set up in 2013, in partnership with the Sunday for Sammy Trust, in the memory of Philip Richardson, an open-spot comic who died earlier that year.