Sam Nicoresti becomes first trans comedian to win best comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Comedian Sam Nicoresti has become the first transgender performer to win the Edinburgh Fringe’s Best Comedy Show award with her show, Baby Doomer.

Baby Doomer is about Nicoresti’s life as a trans woman, and is based around the experience of being misgendered in a clothing shop changing room. “During a stressful house move, burgeoning trans icon Sam Nicoresti felt themselves leave their body. From a comedy night in a care home to the standing stones of Cornwall, this is the story of the journey home,” reads the show’s official synopsis.

Ahead of Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which takes over the Scottish capital every August, Baby Doomer was selected by PinkNews as a must-watch show.

The Birmingham-born comedian said that she was “super excited” to take the Best Comedy award home.

“Winning the award sure is swell, I’m super excited and stoked and jazzed. I did this for the queers making weird art, and it’s a privilege to share this moment with the first all female line-up of award winners,” she said.

This year’s Best Newcomer accolade was won by Ayoade Bamgboye.

Edinburgh Comedy Awards director Nica Burns praised Baby Doomer for being “delightfully human”.

“Sam Nicoresti’s Baby Doomer is a masterfully woven, polished and delightfully human show that captures an essential moment with, to paraphrase her words, laughs by the seconds,” she said.

While Sam Nicoresti is the first transgender performer to win the prestigious accolade, other trans performers have narrowly missed out on winning.

In 2022, Transaction star Jordan Gray was nominated for the award, but lost to Sam Campbell. Suzy Izzard was nominated back in 1991 but lost to Frank Skinner.

Non-binary comedian Hannah Gadsby won the award in 2017 for their show Nanette, while other winners include LGBTQ+ Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd and Stephen Fry.

Other major British talents to previously win the Edinburgh Comedy Award include Steve Coogan, Al Murray, Lee Evans, Jenny Eclair, and Russell Kane.

Baby Doomer follows Nicoresti’s 2024 YouTube special stand-up show Wokeflake, which went viral on TikTok back in December.

The show touched on the culture war surrounding trans women playing in women’s sports, with one joke amassing hundreds of thousands of views on social media.

“I think trans women in sports are a conspiracy by the sports lobby to trick trans people into caring about sport,” Nicoresti jests in the clip.

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