...and so will Gail Porter

Newsreader Jon Snow and presenter Gail Porter are to try their hand at stand-up in front of some of the most influential figures in TV.

Several other broadcasting industry figures will also attempt to perform comedy in front of their peers at the Last Laugh event at the Edinburgh TV festival.

Established comics Kevin Bridges, Pete Johansson, Russell Kane, Shappi Khorsandi and Mark Watson will act as mentors to the novices, who will be judged on their abilities by an expert panel.

The other rookies will be UKTV’s director of entertainment Christian Drobnyk; Martin Durkin, managing director of documentary-makers WAG TV; and Helen Veale of Outline Productions, whose programmes include House of Tiny Tearaways.

The event, sponsored by Comedy Central, is not 62-year-old Snow’s first foray into live comedy, as the respected TV journalist took part in a charity performance of improvised musical Showstoppers! in London in May.

And Porter tweeted in October that she had ‘been busy doing a bit of stand-up’, which she said she ‘thoroughly enjoyed’.

Also at the TV festival, which takes place over the last weekend in August, Have I Got News For You creator Jimmy Mulville will be giving the keynote Richard Dunn Lecture.

The founder of Hat Trick Productions will be speaking about what he’s learned from 25 years at the helm, making such shows as Fonejacker, Outnumbered, The Kumars at No 42, Drop The Dead Donkey and Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Click here for the full festival programme, which has just been released.

Published: 30 Jun 2010