THE Burning Duck Comedy Club will mark the first six months of York’s newest alternative comedy night, run by comedian and promoter Al Greaves.

He has picked surrealist stand-up Lou Sanders to headline Tuesday night’s bill at the club’s monthly meeting in an upstairs room at the Black Swan Inn in Peasholme Green. She comes with plenty of comedy pedigree, having written for Channel 4’s Stand-Up For The Week and BBC3’s Laughtershock, on top of making appearances on Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience and Russell Howard’s Good News.

The night also promises a set by The Mad Bishop and The Bear, a double act created by Callum and Jacob, and a brief spot by the mysterious Steph Hotchkiss. This University of York graduate bears an uncanny resemblance to a Victorian woman who reckoned she could travel through time. She was duly imprisoned in Bedlam, but escaped some years later. Now Steph has a story to tell.

“Steph Hotchkiss first found her knack for stand-up as a student at the University of York six years ago but gave it up to go to London, seek her fortune and ‘get a proper job’,” says Al.

“Having discovered that both are overrated, she returned to Yorkshire to study and do stand- up. Steph likes real ale, Nineties teen movies and wordplay; Steph dislikes being told, ‘You’re funny... for a girl’.”

“I’m very excited to have booked Lou Sanders to headline this month. I saw her show at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and, along with Phil Ellis, who performed at the Burning Duck last month, it was probably my favourite,” he says.

Al runs his comedy club on the first Tuesday of each month, booking each act himself. Headline names are in his diary already for the months of April and May, although he prefers to keep them under wraps.

While Al steers away from having a specific ethos for selecting acts, he considers his club to be of the grassroots variety with spots for experimental musical and sketch acts who do more than deliver stand-up. His headliners so far, Seymour Mace, Geins Family Giftshop, Fox Dog Studios and sketch comedians Heavy Petting, have all veered from the straight gag route with licence to roam.

“The phrase I keep coming up back to is joyful,” says Al. “There’s a freedom that comes through if you step out of feeling you have to deliver a tight 15 to 20-minute set. That freedom gives you the opportunity to take more risks.”

• The Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Lou Sanders, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, Tuesday, 8pm. Tickets: £4 in advance at burningduckcomedy.com; £5 on the door, students £4.