AUDIENCES will be laughing out loud when a new season of top comedy opens at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts this autumn.

A regular on BBC One’s Have I Got News For You? and Radio 4’s Newsquiz, Mark Steel brings his newest stand-up show Who Do You Think I Am? to Lighthouse on October 23.

This surprising and enthralling story about being adopted reveals the remarkable things Mark discovered when searching for his own biological parents.

In his brand new show Right Man, Wrong Age on October 29, Russell Kane unleashes another blisteringly funny award-winning stand-up performance about growing up and growing down.

Combining questing polemic with sweet gags, Ahir Shah’s Machines on 19 November is a stand-up show about the uses and dangers of utopianism in a complex, fractured world.

It also contains an absolutely cracking joke about lizards. This show provides the first opportunity to see comedy in the brand new Sherling Studio, which is being created during Lighthouse’s ongoing summer closure.

Jimmy Carr is gathering a selection of his very best jokes, along with brand new material for the ultimate comedy show at Lighthouse on December 18.

A man who has devoted his life to crafting perfect jokes and has left a trail of laughter in his wake, Jimmy’s new tour will distil everything we love to laugh at and be shocked by, into one incredible, unparalleled night of entertainment.

More comedy is planned for spring at Lighthouse, with dates for Stewart Lee and Ruby Wax already confirmed and more still to come.

n Call 01202 280000.