RUSSELL Kane, Simon Evans and Kerry Godliman are among a feast of funnies set to bring four days of laughter to the city as part of Winchester Comedy Festival, which gets under way on Thursday.

Now in its fifth year, the festival features top stand-ups, hilarious shows and comedy for kids across Winchester's many live venues until October 2.

Comedians Helen Thorn and Ellie Gibson cover a wide range of parenting topics, from pelvic floors and play-dates to farting and fish fingers at Theatre Royal Winchester on Thursday with Scummy Mummies, pictured. Expect songs, sketches, stand-up and very scummy stories!

Host of BBC Radio 4’s Goes to Market and star of BBC1’s Live at the Apollo, Simon Evans has been immersing himself in economics for the last couple of years, like a pig immersing itself in organic cleansing elements. He has unpicked why the French don’t want to own their own home, why mass spectrometers reveal Americans to literally be made of corn, and why Alco-Synth – the effects of alcohol but with an effective antidote – is not likely to be appearing at a wine bar near you in the near future, despite having been invented years ago. As usual the whole thing deteriorates swiftly into a heartfelt rant about his children but these are at least the lofty aspirations he starts with this time at The Discovery Centre on opening night.

The Football Ramble Live is coming to Winchester Comedy Festival for the first time on September 30. Expect laughs and nonsense from the hosts of the iTunes chart topping podcast that boasts over a million downloads a month at Theatre Royal Winchester.

A former guide at the Houses of Parliament, John Kearns won the 2014 Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, a year after being named best newcomer – the first act to achieve that in two consecutive years. Join the brilliantly bonkers comic for a very special work-in-progress at The Railway Inn on October 1.

The annual Gala will take place on the Saturday at The Theatre Royal, starring: Ed Gamble, David Trent, Jen Brister and Joel Dommett.

Russell Kane plays the festival's final night. Are you 16-years-old, yet feel 21? Are you 40, but tragically faking 25? Or maybe you’re full-on 80 years, with the heart of three oxen and the sex drive of a bonobo chimp. Don’t worry: this is normal. No one is ever the ‘right’ age – it’s is the beauty and the curse of being a real person. In this brand new show, Russell Kane unleashes another blisteringly-funny, award-winning stand-up performance about growing up and growing down.

Since 2005, the Comedy Club 4 Kids has been getting the best stand-ups and sketch acts from the international circuit to do their thing for an audience of children (aged 6+) and their families… but without the rude bits! The show is family friendly, but without any patronising idiocy. In fact, it’s just like a normal comedy club, but it’s on in the day, kids are allowed in, and thus there is a higher than usual chance of heckles like “why is that your face!?”

For more details, see winchestercomedyfestival.co.uk