FRESH from her new life in the States, comedienne Gina Yashere will jet into Marlow next week for a festive night of comedy.

Gina, who recently became the first British person to perform on the renowned US Def Comedy Jam, is set to bring her unique brand of humour to the Crowne Plaza Hotel next Thursday.

Ahead of the gig, I asked the 32-year-old entertainer how she was enjoying things “Stateside”, after having been based in Los Angeles for the past year.

She tells me: “Well, I love the weather, the slower pace of life, and the fact that everything is cheaper, which is handy as the dollar is worth the same as chocolate money.”

Gina adds that she hopes to push her career further, a career that to date has reaped plenty of rewards back home in Britain.

In recent years, she has secured numerous appearances on television, including Mock The Week, The Lenny Henry Show and Celebrity Fame Academy, as well as writing a string of plays for BBC Radio 4 and sketches for The Richard Blackwood Show on Channel 4.

In addition, she made her silver screen debut in Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, playing a character called Polythene Pam, and starred in the West End show The Vagina Monologues.

And not forgetting her pièce de resistance: winning Best Female Stand-Up at the 2003 International Black Comedy Awards.

Moving to Los Angeles also inspired Gina to slim down and over the past year she has lost more than four stone, shrinking from a size 18 to a svelte size 12 by modifying her diet and taking up aerobics and colonic irrigation.

“I’d been yo-yo dieting for years,” explains Gina. “When I started doing comedy I was skinny, but years of late night eating after gigs took their toll on my body. I knew I was going to LA, and there was no way I was going there fat. And I feel much better for it.”

A life in the Californian sun seems like a million miles from just over ten years ago, when Gina was working as a lift maintenance engineer with very little thought of going into showbusiness.

She tells me: “I’ve always been funny, but I didn’t think it was a career option.”

As fate would have it, voluntary redundancies were announced at her company one day.

The only woman out of 2,000 men on site, Gina had long been toying with switching to another firm and leaped at the chance to leave.

It was while looking for another position that she began to develop seriously what had, until then, been something of a hobby – writing comedy sketches and performing stand-up routines.

People began to tell her she should do it for a living, and the idea stuck.

Thankfully for her legion of fans, Gina realised her ambition and is now making people laugh the world over.

She adds: “I’m not into having a legacy. I’m not here for an ego trip. I just want to be the best I can be – and right now, I’m better than I’ve ever been.”

The Christmas Comedy Party Night takes place on Thursday, December 18 at The Comedy Club @ Crowne Plaza Hotel, Marlow. Compered by Chambers & Nettleton and also featuring Ian Moore. Details: 0870 444 8940 or www.crowneplazamarlow.co.uk