Amy Schumer To Receive Pudd’nhead Prize In Redding, CT

The Mark Twain Library will be honoring comedian Amy Schumer for Outstanding Humor at the 8th annual Pudd’nhead Prize in Redding, Connecticut. Taking place on Saturday, September 25th, Amy will be receiving a four-foot golden spoon trophy awarded to American comedians. Past recipients include Roz Chast, Ben Stiller, Jim Gaffigan, Seth Meyers, Paul Rudd, Jon Hamm, and Laura Linney.

The award was created in 2014 by comedian and Redding resident Michael Ian Black and is meant to celebrate Mark Twain’s contribution to comedy as inspired by one of Twain’s stories, “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson.” It’s part of the Pudd’nhead Festival, which includes a Pudd’nhead for children, a stand-up comedy night, and the award show. The festival is a fundraiser that is “essential” to the library’s budget, according to its website.

Considered by many as one of the greatest female comedians of all time, Schumer ventured into comedy in the early 2000s before appearing as a contestant on the 5th season of the NBC reality competition series Last Comic Standing in 2007. From 2013 to 2016, she was the creator, co-producer, co-writer, and star of the Comedy Central sketch comedy series Inside Amy Schumer, for which she received a Peabody Award and for which Schumer has been nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Variety Sketch Series in 2015.

That same year, Schumer wrote and made her film debut in a starring role in Trainwreck, for which she received nominations for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She published a memoir in 2016, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, which held the top position on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for two weeks. The same year, she was nominated for two Grammy Awards: for Best Comedy Album for Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo, and Best Spoken Word Album for The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. In 2018, she starred in the comedy film I Feel Pretty and garnered a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination for her Broadway debut in Meteor Shower.

The show is sold out with 250 tickets distributed, and there’s still a waitlist of people who want to attend. This year, the library found a way to make sure a far-reaching audience can enjoy the show. As of Saturday, Oct. 2, anyone will be able to stream the show from the library’s website for a minimum $25 donation.