THE Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis has announced a new season of live comedy, and with the likes of Josie Long and Reginald D Hunter in the mix, prepare for a lot of laughs.

Starting up again this Friday, January 27, the Marine Comedy Club features a host of circuit regulars as well as stars of tomorrow.

On Friday, Cerys Nelmes will be at the helm of the Comedy Club as MC for the night.

Cerys Nelmes has been performing comedy since for the past six years, performing her first gig at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

She followed this up in quick succession by getting through to the semi-finals of So You Think You’re Funny 2011 on her seventh gig.

Cerys is based in the West Country and is now an established act on the comedy circuit working all over the UK.

She performs 20/30 minute sets and is fast becoming one of the best female MCs in the country.

Headliner for the night will be Nick Page.

Nick is the fastest moving man in comedy, going from first open mic appearance to professional status in six months, and has continued to grow his act at the same pace.

Stylistically he is the laconic love child of Clarkson and Clary, with material drawing on experiences as a bouncer, car dealer and estate agent.

Page is at his best when in story telling mode, pulling the audience into the world of his exaggerated past and imaginary future.

He’s now regularly performing at venues throughout the country, including compering residencies at various ‘Kill For A Seat’ clubs.

He was recently filmed performing his own material for a BBC Choice/Steve Coogan collaboration.

Support for the night comes from David Arnold and Brian & Krysstal. Arnold, slightly camp and delightfully tongue-in-cheek, is a real hoot.

Since meeting at The Edinburgh Festival in 2000 Brian & Krysstal have entertained and delighted all kinds of audiences at comedy clubs and cabaret nights.

Regular fixtures at The Edinburgh Festival for eight years, the duo have worked all over the world.

Brian is infamously grumpy and deadpan, while his assistant Krysstal is glamorous but ditzy.

The combination is unique and very funny. Their timing is exquisite, their humour dry and sometimes bawdy.

Later on in the season, Josie Long heads to Lyme Regis with Something Better on March 1.

Following the international sell-out success of her previous show Cara Josephine across the UK, Europe, in Australia and New York, the star of BBC Radio 4’s Romance and Adventure, All of the Planet’s Wonders and presenter of Shortcuts, tours her eighth solo stand-up show nationwide.

This is a show about optimism and hopefulness and about looking for people and things to look up to.

It’s about wanting more from life than it might be up for giving out.

It’s about struggling with realising what you are, who you are and what you can’t change about yourself, and about really feeling like an outsider for the first time.

Ahead of the tour for a teaser of what to expect, Josie said: “I’m 34, I wanted to have kids by now, and be in love, and have a country that didn’t vote with the far right parties to march us all off a cliff. And be able to do all the awesome stuff that activists do, that I can’t do, too.

“I thought we would have won by now. And I wanted to be taller and better looking.”

The brilliant comedian has captured the attention of over 100,000 followers on Twitter with her witty one liners and everyday tweets.

Josie said for every stand up show she tries to write about what she cares and tries to make shows friendly and silly.

Reginald D Hunter will close off the winter/spring season of comedy on April 25.

In the past 12 months he has appeared in a critically acclaimed tour of Ireland as well as performing across Europe.

His appearances on television have included 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and the hugely popular BBC2 series Reginald D Hunter’s Songs Of The South which documented Reginald’s epic trip from North Carolina to New Orleans through 150 years of American popular song.

n For more information, contact the Marine Theatre.