A MONTHLY comedy network will return to Bridport tomorrow night (25) - featuring three rising stand-up stars.

Eric Lampaert and Ahir Shah will take to the Electric Palace stage, while Mark Smith will make his return to the town as compere for the evening.

Eric is a French-English comedian who is a regular on television and the stand-up circuit. He has appeared on BBC2, BBC3, Channel 4, Channel 5, E4 and HBO - and has featured in Taxi Gags, Life's Too Short, Cardinal Burns and The Midnight Beast. He also featured in Dizzee Rascal's video for Bassline Junkie and Scouting For Girls' Love How It Hurts.

Eric studied at École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and Middlesex University. Last year, Eric performed at Latitude Festival, Reading Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has recently finished filming a new feature called Moonwalkers.

Eric won the Latitude comedy competition in 2010, the Laughing Horse Big Comedy Competition in 2008 and was a Raindance Short Film nominee in 2011.

Ahir has been on the comedy circuit for more than six years, and his new show establishes him as a sophisticated stand-up with an elegant, eloquent style that probes beyond the superficial.

Mixing material that appeals to the intelligence with that which appeal to the emotions, Shah covers a lot of ground concerning the 'petty frustrations of independent adulthood'.

Ahir claims to hate stand-up, decrying it as a manipulative, psychological trick - which is ironic since he proves himself so useful at it.

He professes to hate the hollow icebreakers based on a comedian's appearance, though somehow contrives to deploy one, too. Likewise, he knows the likes of Ikea and Tinder might be topics over-exposed in comedy - yet blasts away anyway, confident he's got a new angle.

Mark has rapidly established himself as one of the most interesting and exciting new comics on the circuit. Since reaching the final of So You Think You’re Funny in 2009, he has gigged all over the UK, and has appear on Russell Howard's Good News and has presented for MTV2. In 2012 he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival as part of the long running and prestigious package show The Comedy Zone. 2013 saw Mark take his debut solo show, The Most Astonishing Name in Comedy, to the Pleasance Courtyard at the same festival.

The doors will open at 7.15pm for an 8.15pm start.