How do you fancy sitting in darkened rooms for six hours a day while strangers try to make you laugh? If you love comedy in all its forms, from student wags to the circuit’s slickest gagsmiths, here’s the chance to have the time of your life and change some performers’ lives while you are at it.

The Times is offering you the chance to join the judging panel for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Award), Britain’s most important prize for live comedy. You will be deciding the funniest comedy act at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The nominees and winners of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards can go from zero to hero in a matter of days. Past winners include Dylan Moran, the League of Gentlemen, Frank Skinner, Jenny Eclair and Al Murray. David O’Doherty won the main award last year and Sarah Millican won Best Newcomer.

Last year’s winning panellist, Alison Leitch, says: “Spending hours in darkened rooms in Edinburgh in pursuit of comedy award-winners is undoubtedly the way to spend August. The sheer variety of acts and quality of shows is astounding, and you attend each show with a real purpose. Spending time with the panel, talking comedy, was an education and a highlight. I thoroughly recommend it.”

So show us your credentials. We are looking for real punters who know and care about comedy.

The winner must be available to stay in Edinburgh for two weeks from August 15-30. You will be expected to see six shows a day, feeding back your opinions daily. You will attend and contribute to the official panel meetings and the process of finding a winner.

In return, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards will provide you with accommodation, travel, show tickets and even invitations to the best parties.

How to enter 1. Tell us in about 350 words why you are the best candidate.

2. Write three reviews of your favourite live comedy acts.

3. Entries must reach us by Monday, June 15. If you are shortlisted, you will be required to attend an informal interview in London. Travel expenses will be reimbursed. Send your entry to panellist@comedyawards.co.uk, or Edinburgh Comedy Awards Panellist, 1 Lumley Court, Off 402 Strand, London WC2R 0NB 4. The winner will be announced in The Times on July 10

Terms and conditions 1. Entrants must be 18 or over and resident in the UK.

2. Entrants must be available full time and able to reside in Edinburgh from August 15-30 3. The competition is not open to employees of the Festival Fringe Society or anyone connected professionally with the comedy business.

4. The prize is a position on the Edinburgh Comedy Awards judging panel for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009. The winner must attend approximately six shows a day and provide reviews for all shows attended.

5. Only one entry per person.

6. The winner will be chosen by the award director Nica Burns and the decision is final.

7. The prize is nontransferable. There will be no cash prize.

8. No responsibility will be taken for entries lost, delayed or incomplete.

9. All costs incurred by the winner other than travel and accommodation are at the winner’s expense

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