Stand Up for Cider winners named in Taunton ceremony

The first place went to Charlie Bowers, Jenny Hart was runner-up, while the third place went to Sam Hardy.

Jenny Hart, runner-up

The show on Friday, December 10 was completely sold out and everyone had a fantastic night of top-class comedy entertainment.

Trish Caller, from Genius PR, was very happy to see all the heat winners again and was very proud to see an almost equal split between male and female acts.

As usual, Trish was helped by her friend and comedy specialist Tim O’Connor from Shepton Mallett who helps sift the applications and produce the line-ups for each heat.

They also work together on adding up the score sheets which have been completed by the audience as they choose the winners.

Sam Hardy, third place

Trisha said: “We couldn’t do the shows without our absolutely fantastic resident MC – David Arnold from Plymouth.

“David took part in the competition a few years ago and it is lovely to see how he has progressed into one of the most popular acts on the Southwest Circuit.

“We shared the dates for the 2022 heats with him as soon as they were agreed to make sure he could be with us for all of them.

“All the heats this year were fabulous. It was very difficult to judge, and we ended up putting 13 into the grand final.”

All of the winners and indeed some of the other acts in the final will be appearing on Genius stages in the next few months.

Trisha would like to thank all the sponsors of this years’ competition. Berrys Coaches, Walpole Dunn Accountants, Design Bean, Harry’s Cider and ToneFM, plus our venue hosts Andy, Reuben, and Richard from the Creative Innovation Centre in Paul St, Taunton.

The Cider Barrell Trophy will be engraved with two new winners' names: Blo*dy Covid for 2020 and Charlie Bowers, the human winner in 2021.


David Arnold, resident MC


Trish and David announcing the winner


A photo of the trophy