Hot Rhod becomes BBC's new king of comedy

A man juggling three shows at the Edinburgh Festival has clinched latest BBC comedy awards.

Rhod Gilbert, from Carmarthen, west Wales, swept the judges off their feet last night at the BBC Three New Comedy Awards, hosted by Paul O’Grady.

The 34-year-old was given the unanimous thumbs up by a panel of six judges after his performance in the packed George Square Theatre.

One of six finalists, he was on stage for eight minutes before 500 people, talking about his life growing up in rural Wales.

“I am very happy, it seems to have gone very well,” he said after claiming the £2,000 (€2,800) award.

“The judges obviously thought it was good, the audience was excellent and gave me a great boost.

“I was shaking like a leaf – I am still shaking now.”

The judges included comedians Dave Gorman, Steve Pemberton and the head of BBC Comedy Jon Plowman.

Gilbert, a qualitative researcher who took all his annual holiday at once to perform at the festival, insisted he would continue his “serious” job part-time.

“I love my job and it is quite a rocky road ahead (in the world of comedy),” he said.

The bachelor comedian, who was watched by his “lovely friends”, was due back on stage today.

He took his own show to Edinburgh – Three Men And A Giant – in which he appears with one of tonight’s runners-up, Steve Hall.

The other runner-up was Greg Cook and both he and Hall received £1,000 (€1,400) prize money.

More than 600 people entered the competition last March and the comedians have been whittled down through a series of heats.

The last 30 appeared in live shows in London hosted by Jo Brand, which will be screened – along with the final – on BBC3 in the autumn.

Gilbert, who has won several other comedy competitions this year, called last night’s award the “big one”.

“This is the big one, the main one,” he said. “And this is it for competitions for me.”

Citing Eddie Izzard and Max Boyce as his comedy heroes, Gilbert’s act wavers between the anecdotal and the surreal as he gets on with what he describes as “storytelling”.