CAREY Marx tops Friday's Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club bill at York Barbican, with support from Bethany Black and Harrogate comic turn Tom Taylor, all linked together by host Damion Larkin.

Marx combines dark humour with a mischievous and gleeful delivery and has an ability to find joy in the most unexpected places. His mix of edgy topics and playful gags has taken him to the Middle East, Australia and Canada as well as compere duties at Leeds, Reading and Glastonbury festivals.

Alongside his stand-up, Marx records a weekly topical podcast with comedian Barry Castagnola, The Proper Gander, available through iTunes.

York Press:

Bethany Black and her black and white cat

Bethany Black bills herself as "Britain's only goth, lesbian, transsexual comedian" as her confessional, decidedly dark material takes the audience on a one-way ticket to a world you never knew existed. Watch out for her sarcastic view of taboo subjects, delivered in a neat PVC-clad package.

On television, you may have seen Black as Helen Brears in Channel 4's Cucumber or as 474 in the ninth episode of the ninth season of BBC1's Doctor Who.

Tom Taylor, who is familiar to York audiences from running the Sitting Room Comedy Club, presents his brand of musical comedy, both smart and silly in equal measure, as he reels off his stock of quirky one-liners.

Damion Larkin will no doubt be improvising his set as ever, just as he will at the next Laugh Out Loud night on May 18. Tickets cost £17 on 0844 854 2757 or at lolcomedyclubs.co.uk or £20 on the door from 7.30pm.