EDDIE Izzard - acclaimed stand-up comedian. stage actor, Hollywood and small screen star - will perform to fans in Gwent next week.

Hailed as one of the foremost stand-up comedians of his generation and fresh from a sell-out 34-date tour of America, Izzard will perform for a 500-strong audience at Monmouth's Blake Theatre on Thursday November 13.

This will be one of six warm-up shows for the 46-year-old, ahead of a sold out 10-night run for his new show Stripped, at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End.

The Monmouth show is a coup for the Blake Theatre, as Izzard's talents are increasingly in demand, the fruit of 20 years' work as a stand-up, and as an actor on stage, and on the small and big screens, Stripped will be his first new set of stand-up material for five years and follows previous successes stretching back to the mid-1990s and shows such as Unrepeatable and Definite Article.

An award-winning stage actor, Izzard's acting talents have more recently been seen in cinema, with roles in Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13 and Across The Universe. He also wrote and starred in US TV series The Riches.

The Blake Theatre has sold out its allocation of tickets for the show, but a few remain available online through Ticketweb.