SEYMOUR Mace, the headline act at the first ever Burning Duck Comedy Club night, will return to the York club for its inaugural Woodsduck comedy and art fair on the weekend of July 4 and 5.

Fellow Burning Duck acts Gina Jenkinson, Peter Brush, Sir Dickie Benson will be taking part too, while Johnny Pelham, Jack Campbell and local lad Rob Auton all will be breaking their Duck duck at the club's regular meeting place, upstairs at the Black Swan Inn in Peasholme Green. Auton, a charmingly eccentric comedian, poet and storyteller, will be presented in conjunction with the York spoken-word night, Say Owt Slam.

Surreal comedy will be on the cards from Daniel Nicholas and Karl Scultz's enigmatic character act “Matthew Kelly”, while Burning Duck promoter Al Greaves's new favourite act, Will Franken, will play York for the first time.

"Will is a United States native who has re-located to the UK," says Al. "He's a comedy virtuoso who deluges his audiences with a kaleidoscopic tsunami of mind-blowing character comedy so funny that people stop laughing only long enough to drop their jaws. Will has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a 'one man Monty Python’, and the late Robin Williams said 'Will Franken is a master of illusion and is unchained. He is also very, very funny'. So we're very excited to present Will's York debut."

Summing up the "two days of peace and laughter", Al says: "From early afternoon all until closing time each day, we'll be presenting a diverse range of fantastic shows featuring some of the most exciting, challenging, experimental and refreshing performers hand picked from across the country, including many on their way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

"All shows will be based around the ‘pay what you want' model, so once you've enjoyed a show, we'll request a reasonable financial contribution in a bucket afterwards for the performers, many of whom you might have to pay £10 or more to see at Edinburgh."

In response to anticipated demand, some shows will offer you the chance to buy £5 tickets in advance to guarantee entry. The full running order will be announced very soon, when tickets will go on sale via burningduckcomedy.com