Liverpool stand up Jake Mills and Mock the Week star Andi Osho got on like a house on fire during the Comedy Festival a few months back. They later caught up for a chat about her comedy career, rise to fame and the bear pit of the panel circuit...

Here at the Comedy Blog we're super excited for Tim Minchin's arena show this week.

The Comedy Blog's guest writer Tom Croft finds Black Books star Dylan Moran can still get the laughs out of everyday frustrations...

Rock 'N' Dole is Sam Avery's second hour-long show, and it was nice to see him make the most of the opportunity to tell a decent tale. He had a cracking subject matter, taking the audience back to his adolescence and his time in a fledgling metal band. The old rags-to-riches type journey was a winner, littered with tender recollections of growing up and the disproportionately exciting adventures a group of schoolboys from Maghull were getting up to in their spare time.

The Funny Women Awards makes its annual stop off in Liverpool tomorrow night, as one of its regional heats ahead of the final in September. As well as the evening event, it is hosting an afternoon 'women in comedy' debate.

The event, held at the Bluecoat on Saturday at 12pm, is being chaired by Lynne Parker from Funny Women, who has recently come under fire for her decision to start charging amateur comics to take part in the competition.

The female role in the comedy industry has certainly changed over the last half century, but what position is the comedy industry currently in for women? How have these changes affected existing comedy professionals, and potential newcomers to the industry? Why do the majority of women in the industry tend to work behind the scenes rather than on the stage? What challenges do women face in the comedy industry, both in front of and behind the curtain?

Discussing all this and much more, plus audience questions, will be performers Bryony Kimmings and Shaista Aziz, the Liverpool Comedy Trust's Sam Avery and Krystal Clarke, who founded the city's first all-female comedy night. Entry is £2.

Simon Munnary's show, Self Employed, is a revealing journey into the mind of one of British comedy's unsung talents.

Tim Fitzhigham is probably chuffed to find himself regularly described as a great British eccentric. Well, someone's going to get round to calling you that if you insist on rowing across the Channel in a bath, which is precisely what the comedian found himself compelled to do for charity back in 2005.

Musical Comedy Award winners Jollyboat have had an exciting few months, and although they've been performing on bills all over the place, tonight's gig was the biggest headliner in Liverpool for some time as it was a taster of the show they plan to take to the Edinburgh fringe in the summer.

On the first night of the Liverpool Comedy Festival, I headed over to the Unity to catch up with veteran performer Arthur Smith for a night of... well, comedy was just one part of his amiable, silly, but thoroughly enjoyable act.

Everybody's been talking about the results of a recent poll among comedians that put Liverpool down as the toughest place to gig.

Some 18% of the professionals questioned by Dave TV said this city was the hardest to get a laugh in. In all honesty, it's rather a surprise that percentage wasn't much higher. I was pondering whether to throw my two cents into the mix until I read some fightin' words from a former Echo colleague....