A COMEDIAN who was due to headline the Machynlleth Comedy Festival is to perform a marathon 24-hour ‘virtual’ gig that same weekend.

Mark Watson was due to perform at the festival on May, is to perform the online gig instead, beginning at 9pm on Friday, May 1, and concluding at the same time the following night.

He says he is looking for other comedians who had been due to perform at Mach, and will use money raised from the live comedy marathon to support comics who are struggling financially because they can't gig at the moment.

Confirming the gig on Twitter, the comedian said: “This is true. It is not ‘instead of’ @machcomedyfest, nothing could be.

“But it’ll pass the time eh? Still very much open to any ideas for contributions.”

Watson has held 24-hour marathon stand-up sessions before, inviting fellow comics and audiences to attempt to make it through a full day of live comedy.

And he hopes to be able to attract big name acts, joking that "technically everybody is available".

The Machynlleth Comedy Festival was postponed in Match because of the coronavirus crisis.

Organisers said: “”Due to the current Covid-19 Coronovirus crisis it is with huge sadness that we must cancel this year’s Machynlleth Comedy Festival.

“We know this will be a huge disappointment for all those who were planning to atten. Please know that we have not taken this decision lightly, but under current guidance and information we felt we couldn’t proceed in good conscience.

“For now our focus will be on finding a way through this so that we can return stronger than ever in 2021.”