A summer date for your diary – Wednesday July 9 - when comic Mark Watson is appearing at the West End Centre in Aldershot.

He brings his new Work In Progress 60-minute show before the Westy audience ahead of his slot at the Edinburgh Festival 2008.

Expect some classic Watson funnies and some new material, delivered in bumbling style.

A former Cambridge Footlighter, Mark first made an impact on the comedy circuit in 2002 when he won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic competition and was a runner-up in So You Think You’re Funny?

He’s more versatile than most funnymen. His novel Bullet Points was published in 2003, prompting an Evening Standard assessment of him as “by day a semi-serious novelist, by night a gangly, Pythonesque performer”.

The novel did pretty well. There was a paperback edition and he later wrote a screenplay version for Ugly Duckling Films.

Like all good comics he has enjoyed his moments at Edinburgh shows.

His 2005 effort - 50 Years Before Death And The Awful Prospect Of Eternity -was nominated for the Perrier.

He had reached the grand old age of 25 at the time and was playing out how he saw the next five decades, working out that he was finally going to shuffle off this mortal coil when he reaches 75.

His longer shows can feel like they’re 50 years long too.  His Edinburgh Fringe effort the previous year was entitled Mark Watson’s Overambitious 24-Hour Show – pillows and blankets presumably provided.

He has an impressive list of comic credits – surely enough to suggest the Westy crowd are in for a fair few laughs.

Among his TV credits – from the days when he was living in Toronto – three appearances as an extra in the US version of Queer As Folk.

Westy advise booking early to avoid disappointment on this one. Telephone the box office on 01252 330040 or book through the website at westendcentre.co.uk.