Not all of the great comedy is in Edinburgh at the moment.

It's precisely because they wanted a break from the fringe that Colchester comedy collective The Unmistakable Scent of Leopard is putting on a show at the Colchester Arts Centre.

One of the group's members Rob Saunders explains: "This is the first year we haven't been to Edinburgh mainly because we felt like we needed to take a couple of years off.

"It's really expensive and exhausting but we had so much fun doing it."

Made-up of Rob along with Colchester's James Sarek, Tom Barrett from Chelmsford and Southend stand-up Liam Sullivan, the group have been together around five years after appearing at various open mic night slots around the county.

Rob adds: "We were all doing stand-up locally and had an idea of doing something together.

"Originally that was writing a sketch show of some kind. We all had a similar sense of humour so we thought it could work but in the end we just made a whole load of silly videos.

"Then we came up with this idea of a competition made-up of stupid games, which eventually became the Hyper-Bowl."

That ran once a month at what was SlackSpace in the town before moving to the Waiting Room, next to the Firstsite Art Gallery.

"We then took it on the road," Rob continues, "to places like UEA before taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe about four years ago."

Despite being on a 'break' from the comedy fringe, the guys still wanted to stage a summer show and so asked the Colchester Arts Centre if they could stage something there.

Entitled Best Friends Club, not only will USOL bring the competitive comedy nonsense of The Hyper-Bowl but there will also be a selection of their favourite comedians, a hilarious buffet, and at least a million laughs (number of laughs may vary).

Rob says: "I've staged a few gigs at the arts centre before mixing comedy with music. Stand-up doesn't particularly work well with stand-up on its own but it worked rather well with the Hyper-Bowl, I suppose because like certain types of music it's silly and loud as well.

"I'd love to put on a regular gig there but we'll just have to see how it goes."

The Unmistakable Scent Of Leopard: Best Friends Club is at the Colchester Arts Centre this Friday, August 23. Doors are 8pm with entry priced £6, £5 concessions, available in advance by calling 01206 500900.