One of the key venues of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has unveiled its programme for this year, with veteran comedians performing alongside up-and-coming names.
Alexei Sayle, who has started stand-up again after a 17-year gap, will return to the Fringe with a 13-show run and will be joined by veterans Mark Thomas and Stewart Lee.
This year will be the 18th festival for the venue and its 15th at its current base in the capital's York Place.
The venue is staging 37 shows across four stages during the Fringe.
Notable faces from TV comedy will also be present including Susan Calman, Stephen K Amos, Simon Evans and Tony Law.
Simon Munnery, Richard Herring, and Brendon Burns are in the programme.
There is also room for Scottish talent with Shang-A-Lang, Scott Agnew, Vladimir McTavish and Keir McAllister.
Tommy Sheppard, director of The Stand, said: "We're proud to be at the heart of the fringe – and we're proud that no comedian has ever lost money at The Stand during the Fringe. By keeping ticket prices down and artists' costs low we're defending innovation and experiment that keeps the spirit of the Fringe alive."
With almost 900 performances in all and 80,000 tickets on sale the club says it is the biggest independent producer of comedy on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Stand Comedy Club first presented a Fringe programme in 1996.
The 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs from August 2 to 26 and tickets are now on sale for some shows at the annual festival.
Last year, despite competition from the Olympics and poor weather, the Fringe sold or gave out 1.85 million tickets, only slightly down from 2011's record total of 1.877 million.
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