FANS of comic Ricky Gervais who failed to be quick off the mark are disappointed today after tickets to see him perform in Ipswich sold out within hours.

FANS of comic Ricky Gervais who failed to be quick off the mark are disappointed today after tickets to see him perform in Ipswich sold out within hours.

The two dates planned by the comedian for the Regent Theatre in March became the hottest ticket in town when they went on sale yesterday.

Fans determined to get seats formed an early morning queue outside the theatre, while others jammed phone lines and websites.

The two dates will see a total of 3,450 people get the chance to see Gervais perform and all tickets had sold out within four hours of going on sale.

Although his arrival in town is more than two months away, Gervais has already caused controversy with his current tour, Fame, which started in Glasgow last week.

An ill-timed joke about killing prostitutes caused upset in Ipswich and an embarrassed Gervais later admitted he realised such a joke could cause offence in the town.

But that did not put off fans of the comedian, who found fame with shows such as The Office and Extras, and around 40 people were queuing out the Regent by 8.30am yesterday. By 11am the queue had grown to around 75 people.

Some fans have complained about not being able to buy any of the coveted tickets, but the Regent has said they do all they can to accommodate everyone.

Business development manager David Mansfield said: “We do give priority to the people who queue for many hours outside the theatre.

”When we have a show like this we constantly watch the queue and want to give priority to those people. But we also have to acknowledge that some people can't get to the theatre so we do release some tickets on the internet and have telephone sales too.”

The theatre has also promised to do everything it can to stop touts -including the possibility of refusing entry to anyone who has bought a ticket from a tout.

Within 20 minutes of the tickets going on sale, a pair were put up on a popular internet auction website.

By this morning, the number of tickets on sale at inflated prices had gone up to 28 pairs.

Mr Mansfield said: “The first ticket went up for auction at 10.20am, the person must have gone straight home, photographed their ticket and put it up for sale.

“The terms and conditions of the tickets state clearly that the tickets cannot be resold. We will contact all the people who have put tickets up for sale and point it out to them, because they will be selling void tickets.

“We can make those tickets void and not let the people in.

“From the theatre's point of view, our policy is that those tickets will be void.”

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www.rickygervais.com

www.ipswichregent.com