FUNNY man Stewart Francis wasn't afraid of causing offence with his jokes on the Bournemouth stop of his tour.

It seems that all stereotypes, out-of-bounds topics and close-to-the-mark thoughts were top of the agenda for the Canadian comedian, a regular star of BBC's Mock the Week and a joker famed for his one-liners.

To reel off an hour of one-sentence gags is no mean feat, only stumbling on his words a couple of times and each of those was helped along by the audience's applause to bring it back.

It really is one of those shows where you had to be there, but there were smart remarks on religion, race, Canada, toilet humour, ugly children and, dare I, say it will always be too soon for a joke at F1 legend Michael Schumacher's expense.

Some of his puns fell on deaf ears, but most of the time he had the audience falling into quiet titters at the innuendo or quick timing.

While it wasn't quite to my taste, it beat watching another re-run of Mock the Week on TV.

Francis follows a long line of his colleagues from the show who have entertained crowds in Dorset including Andy Parsons, Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard and Dara O Briain.

Let's hope that some more of his fellow TV comedians will visit Bournemouth for some more entertainment by the seaside soon.