The arrival of October in Brighton means two things – summer’s now been officially over for about five months and the Comedy Festival rolls into town once more. This programme of big hitters gathers together everyone from longstanding live act luminaries to the emerging crop of panel show breakouts. The rooms may be large but early commitment is essential – ringing up and finding a show’s sold out isn’t funny at all. Here’s some we like the sound of.

JERRY SADOWITZ
Comedian, Magician, Psycopath
Corn Exchange Sat 16th
Effectively banned from our screens since 1992’s ‘Pall Bearer Revue’ attracted record complaints and a BBC promise to never repeat or release it on DVD, Sadowitz has since plied a critically impeccable live career. This is the most deliciously offensive comedy we’ve ever seen; combined with close-up magic that he takes extremely seriously (see the ‘magicians only’ page on his crap website jerrysadowitz.com – password ‘Richard Kaufman’ – for an inkling…) it makes for a genuinely brilliant and, for anyone in his beady eye-line, terrifying live proposition. (NC)

STEPHEN GRANT – FACEPALM
Corn Exchange Sun 17th
If you’ve got any relationship with local live comedy you’ll have come across Stephen Grant. As compere (Chortle award-winning, no less) of the Krater comedy club at Komedia he’s introduced them all, but out on his own he packs them in like a good’un. Mining his marriage break-up for red-mist material gives this show a new edge, as well as more general forehead-slapping revelations and a downtrodden bonhomie that’s seen him sell out every year since 2000. (NC)

STEWART LEE
Vegetable Stew
Concert Hall Tues 19th
It was great to see Stew back on TV in last year’s ‘Comedy Vehicle’, if a little frustrating that the BBC seemed not to trust him with a straight 30-minute stand-up slot. Most of the sketches that interspersed the brilliantly laconic live routine were embarrassingly bad, and an indignity they don’t foist on the seaside nan-fest of Michael McIntyre et al. This new live show is apparently a precursor to another TV series planned for 2011 – hopefully it will forgo the execrable VT cutaways. (NC)

TERRY SAUNDERS
Six And A Half Loves
Dome Weds 20th
True love isn’t generally viewed favourably by comedians, and this is one of the ways in which Terry Saunders stands out from the rest. This show leads on from his bittersweet YouTube success story ‘Six And A Half Loves’, which has had thousands of views and tells of poignant missed chances and slightly depressing scenes that will be familiar to even the smoothest operators amongst us. Cute without being sickening, and unexpectedly witty, this show hopes to make you leave feeling a little bit luckier in love. (JMM)

FOUR POOFS AND A PIANO
Dome Thurs 21st
Okay, okay, you probably know what to expect here. But if you’re a fan of kitch, camp barbershop quartets, Graham Norton, witty pop songs, penis jokes, glitterballs, smoke machines and fluffy little dogs, you’re in for a treat. And if you’re not, consider yourself warned. Four Poofs And A Piano have transcended daytime TV and entered centre stage: it looks set to be quite the show. (JMM)

JIM JEFFRIES
Alcoholocaust
Corn Exchange Sat 23rd
There’s something about Aussies that make them better at being offensive than anyone else, and Jim Jeffries topped the lot by getting punched on stage. Anyone with a 15-minute routine about the time he got a vibrating egg stuck up his arse is either completely fearless or very good at creating a character. His spat-out delivery and edgy confessions of misdemeanours give him the feel of a modern day Bill Hicks. That’s not an empty compliment; Jeffries is as funny and shocking as that legend. (JK)

WORDS BY NICK COQUET, JAMES KENDALL, JESSICA MARSHALL McHATTIE JIM JEFFRIES