Italy is to get its first English-language comedy club.

Ross Noble will headline the first night of the new venue in Milan on May 5.

The club, in the well-known live music venue Scimmie, is being launched by Karel Beer, who has run the Laughing Matters comedy club in Paris for the past eight years.

He said: "I have been trying for several years to bring this form of comedy to Milan and finally the time has come.

"I'm delighted that the shows will be taking place in the Scimmie because it is the ideal venue for this form of intimate entertainment."

English language clubs are now a feature of many European cities. As well as Beer's Laughing Matters club in Paris, Comedy Store owner Don Ward runs a night in Berlin, American impro group Boom Chicago is based in Amsterdam (where the Comedy Café also hosts English shows), and British comic Dave Lemkin runs regular gigs in Brussels and Antwerp.

Noble is known for his globetrotting, which formed the basis for the Radio 4 show Noble Goes Global. He's currently appearing at the Melbourne comedy festival, and will then go on to play Singapore.

Laughing Matters