Donal Vaughan and Josh Pugh win stand-up competitions
- Donal Vaughan has won the Frog And Bucket Comedy Club's stand-up competition in Manchester
- Meanwhile, Josh Pugh was the winner of the Hot Water Comedy Club contest in Liverpool
Donal Vaughan was announced as the winner of the Frog And Bucket Comedy Club's 2016 stand-up competition on Monday night, whilst Josh Pugh won the Hot Water Comedy Club Comedian Of The Year 2016 title on Sunday.
Frog World Series 2016
Donal Vaughan has been named the winner of the Frog World Series 2016, the stand-up competition run by the Manchester-based The Frog And Bucket Comedy Club.
The runner-up in Monday night's final was Mark Grimshaw and panel prize went to Simon Wozniak. Also competing were Matt Hutson, Tom Lawrinson, Gary Meikle, Arielle Souma, Chris Sullivan and Anthony Wright.
The Frog World Series involves acts that survive the club's Beat The Frog strand. The night, which grew out of the club's Raw amateur night, where John Bishop did his first gig, takes place every Monday throughout the year and sees newbie comedians attempt to 'beat the frog', where they have to be sufficiently funny to entertain the crowd for five minutes.
Three audience members are armed with cards that they hold up when they decide they've had enough. If all three cards go up a loud croaking noise sounds and the act has to exit the stage. Those that manage to stay the course then face an audience 'clap off' which determines who wins the night and gets to go on to perform an uninterrupted eight minute set the following week, as well gain automatic entry into the World Series.
Donal Vaughan, who is from Ireland, is no stranger to competitions. Last year he won the Laughing Horse New Comedian Of The Year competition, and has previously won a comedy prize at Tedfest.
Writing on Twitter after his win, Vaughan said: "Yay. I won the Beat the Frog World Series Final. Had [on] my lucky blue jumper."
Hot Water Comedian Of The Year 2016
Josh Pugh was named the Hot Water Comedy Club Comedian Of The Year 2016 at a packed final in Liverpool in Sunday.
Jack Gleadow took the second spot, with the final also involving Eddie Fortune, Radu Isac, Stu Woodings and Simon Wozniak.
Speaking about this year's contest, the club said: "It was the strongest final we've ever had and all acts were fantastic."
It is the latest in a string of competition wins for the West Midlands-based Pugh. Last year he got the Birmingham Comedy Festival Breaking Talent Award, and in July this year he won the English Comedian Of The Year competition.
On his Twitter account, rather than commenting on his win, Pugh continued his stream of jokes, tweeting: "I've dated a lot of women. By dated I mean incorrectly guessed their age."