The Langtoun's first ever laugh-athon took place at venues around the town from September 25 to 28 and was deemed a great success by those participating.

Now Kirkcaldy Town Centre Management Committe has been given a £12,000 grant towards hosting an even bigger and better event next year.

The cash has come from funding body Event Scotland which aims to promote Scotland as the ideal destination for a wide variety of sporting and cultural events.

Among those who appeared at this year's festival in Kirkcaldy were Jenny Eclair, Arnold Brown, Bob Doolally, John Gillick, Kevin Bridges and Jeremy Hardy, and despite selling only 53 per cent of the tickets for the various events, the feedback was very positive.

Now KTCM has backed the bid to stage a follow up event and is hoping to attract many more big comedy names to the town and really put it on the funny map.

As media sponsors of the event, the Fife Free Press gave extensive coverage to the festival, including a four-page supplement beforehand and reviews of many of the shows.

Kirkcaldy Town Centre Manager, Sunil Varu, said: "The feedback from everyone - the public, the venues and local businesses, was all very positive, and proved that people are keen to have something like this in the town.

"This year's festival was a pilot and there was not a lot of time to organise it, but we will have much more time for the next one.

"With the extra funding from Event Scotland we will be looking at attracting many more people from outwith Fife's boundaries into the Kingdom for a good laugh.

"We will also be looking at attracting even more big comedy names next year, perhaps along the theme of Homecoming, with more Scottish names, but that has still to be discussed.

"Our ambition is grow the Festival into Scotland's third Comedy Festival after Glasgow and Edinburgh.

'We are confident that the 2009 festival will be a success on a number of levels including audience numbers, visitors, business, improved perception of the town."

Paul Bush, chief operating officer of Event Scotland said: "This funding programme provides support to events and festivals across Scotland, and we're delighted to support the Kirkcaldy Comedy Festival following their hugely successful first year."