IT IS often said that most people would prefer to be eaten by a shark than perform comedy in front of a live audience.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Ipswich after a comedy workshop sold out in record time, leaving organiser, comic Anthony Lamond, overjoyed at its success.

“There is a real hunger in Ipswich for comedy and the learning of the craft,” Lamond (pictured) said.

“Demand for the workshop has more than doubled in the past year.”

The Ipswich Has Comic Talent: The Workshop will host 16 budding comedians this year, up from seven last year.

Lamond said the idea behind the workshop was to look at the science of laughter to enable ‘wannabe’ comedians to build stage craft and develop an on stage persona.

“If you were to attend the workshop, my first question would be, ‘what makes you unique, tell me something distinctive about yourself and what makes you interesting to listen to?’, he said.

“Comedy is born from hard luck stories; tragedy plus time equals comedy, essentially.

“We look for those darker moments in life that there’s been enough time to reflect on and to process and we then laugh our way out of it as a coping mechanism.”

The workshop runs for just seven hours with the idea that attendees will get out on stage the very same night to show the world their ‘comic chops’.

“It is a very much zero to hero kind of day,” Lamond said.

“Most comedy workshops will run for a weekend or something, but we just jump straight in there and pull the bandaid off.

“If there is an itch, we scratch it and knock the whole thing over very quickly.”

But Lamond said the next step for comics after their first show was to promote themselves to get on to the comedy circuit.

“It can be a tough game,” Lamond said.

“Performances don’t just happen. You must work on your act and then promote yourself to get gigs to keep the ball rolling.”

Newly minted comics will get their five minutes of fame at Club 188 Ipswich Has Got Talent: The Show on February 4.