They're new, they're funny and they might just be a big-shot comic one day. Remember the names ...

Pat Cahill
Yyyyyes! After just 18 months in the game Cahill (left) already stands out as a brilliant new comic. He's silly and surreal, more in a Vic and Bob than a Mighty Boosh way, and capable of holding his own in the tougher clubs. He's waiting for 2013 to do his debut Edinburgh show, which may be a canny move. Instinctively funny. Lots of original ideas. Looks like Richard Bacon.

Rob Beckett
Very funny, very assured, very Cockney, not far off being the finished product. Beckett has some New Comedian silverware in the cabinet and hopefully this year he'll fulfill his potential with a strong debut Edinburgh show. Check him out if you like Carl Donnelly.

The Noise Next Door
Became unlikely headliners at weighty clubs such as Highlight and the Boat Show during 2011. Noise ... are a thrilling young improv quintet who look ready to kick on and get big.

Rachel Parris
Parris has natural funny bones. She does musical comedy and remembers to put the jokes in. Her sharp wit means she stands out in improv shows (such as the Great Big Sketch Off and Austentatious). To boot, she's a classically trained singer and pianist. Seriously talented, then.

David Trent
A maverick comic who's been on the fringes of the circuit for a little while but has his debut Edinburgh show this year, which is an exciting prospect. His performances are intense, fearless and original. Some can't stand him, some bloody love him, no one forgets him.

Joe Lycett
Like Beckett, a fully fledged stand-up who is likely to fly this year – look out in particular for his debut Edinburgh show this summer. Lycett (above, pic Ed Moore) has supported Jack Whitehall and Tommy Tiernan and is stylistically somewhere between Sarah Millican and Josie Long. Really quite a lovely young chap, too.

Lou Sanders
Sanders nailed her debut Edinburgh show last year, which was full of charisma, freshness and lo-fi invention. An eccentric act who won't be to everyone's tastes but certainly is to LiF's, particularly over the full hour.

Romesh Ranganathan
A sardonic and hugely likeable stand-up who is moving through the gears, it looks only a matter of time before Ranganathan becomes a regular headliner on the circuit.

Kieran and the Joes
A sketch trio with two promising if not earth-shattering Edinburgh Fringe shows to their name. However, some outstanding writing pushes them ahead of their peers, and suggests Kieran ... (Kieran Hodgson, Joe Parham and Joe Markham plus co-writer Tom Meltzer) are worth getting excited about.

Daniel Simonsen
A graduate of legendary clown school the Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, whose alumni include Sacha Baron Cohen and Dr Brown, though Simonsen's style is more creepy stand-up than hairy stunt-comic. The young Norwegian is the support act on Simon Amstell's 2012 UK tour.

Best of the rest
Some other bright young things to look out for: Footlights president Phil Wang; gentle leftie stand-up Joe Wells; the professorial Mark Cooper-Jones; withering Londoner Andrea Hubert; the ridiculously-good-given-he's-only-been-going-for-six-months Sam Wong; indie loudmouth Hatty Ashdown; double new comedian award-winner Matt Rees, and big-haired personality bomb Richard Todd.