Get your sides ready for splitting because it's that time of the month again - Lock n' Load comedy night is coming to Blackburn's King George's Hall on December 2. We spoke to Martin BigPig who is headlining.

OF COURSE, Martin BigPig isn't his real name - but the story of how he got it pretty much sums up this unusual, fascinating and hilarious man.

He explained: "Before I got into comedy I was a circus performer based in Northern Ireland.

"I got asked to take part in a big charity event and to raise sponsorship it was decided I'd try to beat the Guinness World Record for eating the most cooked breakfasts - 24 in total.

"It was a big operation with chefs making the food as I ate. It all had to be done in 45 minutes you see.

"When I'd cleared the last plate a reporter from the local radio station said: Well Martin, it's confirmed you are a big pig'. The name stuck from there."

Tomorrow night he'll be taking to the stage at King George's Hall along with supporting comedians Chris Roche, Neil Dougan and Leon Sidebottom.

Born into a circus family, Martin had an early career as a juggler, unicyclist, knife-thrower, fire-eater, and magician.

But an accident left him with a shattered ankle and he was forced to focus on his work as a stand-up comedian.

The ankle healed but the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 changed his outlook.

"I still do the odd bit of circus work because my act includes things nobody else does - I have a really tall unicycle and shoot trick basketball shots from it.

"But after September 11 I realised that things had changed.

"A lot of my act included pyrotechnics and juggling chainsaws and in the current climate it would just have been too difficult to fly with these things. I decided to concentrate on stand-up."

The big top's loss is comedy fans' gain as Martin has been delighting audiences and critics alike with his largely improvised act.

"If someone has made the effort to come out and pay to see me I want to give them something special, something that isn't exactly the same as last night's performance," he said.

"I've built up so much material over the years I could never do it all so I usually just see what comes up."

Perhaps Martin's biggest claim to fame (aside from the cooked breakfast world record, which incidentally was ruled inadmissible by the Guinness adjudicator because the sausages were a fraction smaller than EU regulations) is that a picture of him fire-breathing in a leotard features on the board of the Genius edition of Trivial Pursuit.

"It was taken by a very highly respected photographer for a calendar of circus performers years ago," said Martin.

"My friends are always sending me pictures of Charles Manson and people with beards with notes saying that's you' or that's your dad' as a joke so when one friend phoned me up and said he'd seen me on the Trivial Pursuit board I assumed it was a wind-up.

"Now when we play I say if I land on that square I have to have a free go."

See Martin BigPig on Saturday, November 2 at 8pm, at Lock n' Load comedy night at King George's Hall, Blackburn. For tickets call box office on 01254 582582.