There were some surprisingly good acts at the Funny Women Awards' Brighton showcase, along with a few stinkers.

The evening was one of ten being held across the country, giving ordinary women the chance to do stand-up in front of a paying audience and see whether they have what it takes.

The best acts go through to the semi-finals in London and Manchester next month before the final at The Comedy Store in London on July 3.

Presumably the worst will stick to their day jobs.

The excellent compere Zoe Lyons, a regular performer at Komedia's Bent Double comedy night, won the competition in 2004 and urged the crowd to go easy on the fledgling acts.

She did a sterling job over two hours and thirty minutes, helping to reel the audience back in after some of the performers had left them cold.

There were 11 acts, most of them from Brighton and Hove, each given around five minutes to make their mark.

Katy Schutte was up first with an ice-cool delivery and an excellent song about her androgynous boyfriend.

Fiona Greenway's act raised belly laughs with descriptions of some of the more adventurous sexual positions available, then wheelchair-bound Liz Carr broke all the stereotypes with a self-deprecating but dignified set with jokes about people's reactions to disabilities which quickly won the crowd over.

The second half kicked off with Martine Pepper, who had travelled from Newham in east London and amused the crowd with a cool delivery and jokes about life on the wrong side of the tracks.

Brighton's Maddie Bridgett couldn't quite pull off her self-deprecating set about being short, Catholic and lesbian but Canadian Judy Batalion's surreal act battered the audience into submission.

The competition, now in its fourth year, gives women a chance to shine away from the male-dominated stand-up circuit and has helped bring some top-notch performers, including Zoe Lyons, to the nation's attention.

Some of the money raised is given to women's charities, the YWCA and Jo's Trust, and the winner is given a five-star holiday in Cyprus and £500 spending money.