My first day at Clown College

I have been recruited to make a fool of myself on stage to an audience of hundreds for charity.

As part of the Southport Comedy festival I will be trying to make strangers laugh for Claire House.

Claire House is a charity that provides care and support for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families across the North West.

So I am now officially a student of the art of hilarity after I attended my first workshop on a stand up comedy crash course with Southport's home-grown comedic talent, Brendan Riley.

It was a gentle friendly session to begin with but the group is to be seen as a gym for the comedic mind - and I am in desperate need of a workout.

I have no comedy experience, that is unless you count the time I was waiting for a bus and I had, how to put this delicately? I had a builder's bum and was leaning up against the glass bus shelter - that made many strangers laugh.

Or the time I woke up in the middle of the night screaming to my husband that I couldn't see. I had gone blind, terror in my voice! It was only when my husband jumped out of bed in panic and put the light on that a miracle happened and my sight was restored. That always makes people laugh, or smile politely and move away.

But stand up needs so much more than a funny story, the delivery is everything and I need to make sure that I am comfortable enough on stage to deliver even half decent material with conviction to prise even a giggle out of a crowd.

That is the scariest part and I am hoping that the workshops will help me to do this. Otherwise I might as well go back to the bus stop.

• The Claire House Comedy Workshop Showcase takes place on Sunday, October 27 at the Ramada Hotel in Southport. Doors open at 6:30pm with the show starting at 7:30pm. Tickets cost £15. To book email me; rebecca.koncienzcy@trinitymirror.com

For more information on the comedy festival click here.

For more information on Claire House click here.