PREPARE your funny bones for some serious tickling in 2002 because a bumper package of comedy is heading this way.The latest person to add her name to the list of comedians and fun lovers performing in Ipswich in the coming months is over-sized comedienne, Jo Brand.

By Jo Macdonald

PREPARE your funny bones for some serious tickling in 2002 because a bumper package of comedy is heading this way.

The latest person to add her name to the list of comedians and fun lovers performing in Ipswich in the coming months is over-sized comedienne, Jo Brand.

The former psychiatric nurse, who has a dour but razor sharp perspective on matters of all kind, particularly those of a sexist and size-ist nature, will appear live at Ipswich Corn Exchange for one night only on March 22.

Jo turned her attention to comedy in 1987 and gradually built up a large following of fans on the London comedy circuit and then throughout the UK.

She received more widespread fame in 1993, a year after she was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award, when Channel 4 broadcast her first television show, Through the Cakehole.

She is an acclaimed author, having penned A Load of Balls: Men in History and A Load of Ball Crunchers: Women in History, and has continued to write for television and perform live since making her break.

Jo holds the accolade of being the first comedian to appear on BBC1's Question Time and has also received a number of awards, including Best Stand-Up Comic at 1995's British Comedy Awards.

It is little surprise therefore that she is so highly regarded as Britain's top female comic.

Jo is not alone in journeying to Ipswich in 2002, however.

Lenny Henry, Lee Evans, Roy Chubby Brown, Jim Davidson and the hit comedy Bouncers, starring Gareth Hale, of Hale & Pace, and former Blue Peter presenter Tim Vincent, are also helping turn the coming year at the Regent and Corn Exchange into a comedy lover's dream.

Lenny Henry is first to put in an appearance with a show at the Regent on March 19.

Jim Davidson performs at the theatre on April 26 followed by Roy Chubby Brown stopping at the venue on May 3.

Bouncers will enjoy a week-long run at the Regent from May 13 to 18 before Lee Evans takes to the stage there for two nights on May 21 and 22.

Together they promise to keep the laughter flowing through the first half of the year and will pick up where the likes of Jack Dee and Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall left off in 2001.

Rik and Ade, who brought the latest chapter in Bottom Live to Ipswich, and Jack Dee, who made a welcome return to town, both enjoyed sold out runs at the Regent and proved that big name comedy is always a popular choice among the region's theatre-goers.

*Tickets for Jo Brand cost £14 and £13, for Lenny Henry they are £16.50 and £14.50, for Jim Davidson £18 and £16, for Roy Chubby Brown £16, for Bouncers £15 and £14 and for Lee Evans £20 and £19.

All tickets can be bought at the Central Box Office, Princes Street, Ipswich, by calling 01473 433100 or on-line at www.ipswich-ents.co.uk