The next Jack Dee or Lee Evans could be emerging from a south-coast weekly newspaper.

Richard Morris, chief reporter at the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, took to the stage after a local comedy club manager offered him a ten-minute slot.

His first-ever gig has obviously created some buzz on the comedy scene as he has since been offered two more performances – one of which will be at the famous Comedy Store, in London.

Richard, 26, told HoldtheFrontPage: “I know the guy who does the comedy night as I have been writing about it for a while.

“He invited me down and initially I said I’d do it, but then they rang me up and gave me just five days notice.

“A professional did about an hour and then they let local people have a go.

“I was getting pretty stressed before going on and was worried that people weren’t going to laugh.

“A couple of people from the paper and some friends came down but I didn’t want too many people in case I made a complete idiot of myself. I think they were a bit shocked by the language.

“It went really well, a lot of people told me it was good, and they’ve asked me to do it again. It’s something I might get into more.”

Click on the link below to see a YouTube video of Richard’s exploits. There is some strong language.