Richard Gadd won the best show gong at the Fringe at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards at the weekend for his highly original but perplexing show Monkey See Monkey Do. It is funny and innovative, with Gadd spending much of the hour running on a treadmill and interacting with prerecorded video clips and sound - but the show is also painful to watch.The stand-up comedian describes his mental health problems after a serious sexual assault six years ago, after which he started questioning his masculinity and sexuality.Intriguingly, Monkey See Monkey Do was just one of a slew of well-received comedy performances staged at the month-long festival that had their roots in dark and painful places.The show gained four- and five-star reviews across the board, and Mark Monahan, reviewing the show in The Daily Telegraph, described it as: "Strong stuff, a show that progressively and potently sucks you into a very troubled mind."Gadd, 26, from Fife in Scotland, said he avoided describing the traumatic event in detail."I always say I was sexually assaulted because I don't want my parents reading the word you're thinking of. And I didn't want to relive the actual event because I have worked so hard to get the flashbacks out of my head."But I wanted to portray the repercussions, which still last today, and show to the world that just because you can't see it, or you don't know someone's story, doesn't mean it isn't real."I cannot tell you how bad it got, but the worst thing my abuser did was to take my confidence away from me. I feel this will go some way to getting it back."He decided to run on the treadmill during the show (he runs about 10km each night) because: "For two years the only way I could put the monkey on my back to sleep was to run and run and run."I was running 16km a day, six days a week. I wanted to show that everything in it is very real."Nica Burns, producer of the awards, said of Monkey See Monkey Do: "It is a highly original, extraordinary show that combines hilarity and heart."Mental health issues were a ubiquitous theme of this year's Fringe comedy programme.Australian comic Felicity Ward, who suffers from anxiety and depression, mined comedy from psychological and psychiatric statistics in 50% More Likely to Die, whereas Danish stand-up Sofie Hagen, who also suffers from depression, mocked people who do not understand others' mental ill health in Shimmer Shatter.American stand-up comic Chris Gethard in Career Suicide described the suicidal thoughts that resulted in his years of therapy - to hilarious effect.British musical comic Rachel Parris' show, Best Laid Plans, described her encounter with the Samaritans after she broke up with her boyfriend, and Newcastle comic Seymour Mace's delightfully daft Sh*t Title, "knocked the demon down" as he described "the ridiculousness of how depression can make me behave".Gadd said the number of shows about mental torment was a sign that the UK was "becoming more aware of the issue, and that's a good thing".It was a Scottish double at the awards as Glaswegian Scott Gibson, 31, won "best newcomer" for Life After Death, about his recovery from a brain haemorrhage in 2009.Gibson, who was a call centre manager before he went into comedy, said: "When I recovered I knew I had to write a show about it. I am so grateful for the doctors putting me back together again."The panel prize - awarded by the awards' judges, as well as critics, industry figures and comedy fans for a show that embodies the spirit of the Fringe - went to the team behind Iraq Out & Loud: Reading the Chilcot Report in Full - which had a relay of comedians reading out the full text of the official report into the UK's role in the Iraq war.The show's producer, comic and actor Omid Djalili, said: "We did it because comedians are very good at detecting bullshit." - ©The Sunday Telegraph..