Comic says winning cheesiest joke award 'is bonkers'

A comedian has said "it's bonkers" to have scooped the top prize for the cheesiest joke of the year at his first Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Fil Milton runs the Make The Ferret Mad Again comedy nights at The Ferret in Preston, Lancashire.

He said he has been doing stand-up for four years after being inspired by Mark Simmons' one-liners at the Fringe in 2021.

Milton's winning joke was: "My brother convinced me to go halves on a used funeral car - I can't believe I was so easily co-hearsed."

Milton said the "easy bit" about comedy was "standing in front of people" but the hard part was "writing good material".

"Once you've got good material you have confidence in it and you can get up and you can do it," he said.

Milton said he first went to the Fringe in 2021.

That was where he first saw Mark Simmons, who went on to win the funniest joke at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024.

Milton is now set to do his first show at Pizza Geeks on Easter Road from 22 to 30 August.

"You are competing with a lot of other shows, so there's always people on the street, thrusting flyers into your hand and trying to get you to come and see that show," he said.

"But I'm hoping that the word will now get out about my show."

He said he was also "now doing gigs all over the country, which are generally well-received, which is nice".

"I'm already in the throes of writing my second show for next year as well, so it's going great," he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

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