By Doreen Crowther, Showbusiness Correspondent BOB Williamson is making a comeback - into society. Since the early 1990s when he slipped at home and seriously damaged his back, Bob has been a self-confessed couch potato. All that changed last year when Bob, who still lives in Bolton, wanted to celebrate his 50th birthday with friends and realised there was nowhere they wanted to go."I had been indoors for ages because there was nowhere I felt comfortable," he said.

So the idea of a comedy club for Bolton was born.

Next Thursday the Laughingas Comedy Club will be re-launched at The Place, Ash Street, Bolton in what will be a "first" for the town. Shows will run every Thursday.

Laughingas is the north's longest established comedy club. It was founded in 1980 in Chorley by comedian Phil Cool, who will be at Bolton's opening night, and Steve Taylor, a Ramsbottom pub landlord. Laughingas operated from several venues in the North-west and among the big name comedians who cut their comedy teeth at the club were Harry Enfield, Vic Reeves, Jack Dee and Steve Coogan.

Bob, who was an integral part of the 1970s folk/comedy scene, is doing the admin for the club while Steve Taylor, will compere the evenings."I have not completely lost my coach potato image," Bob said. "But this is very therapeutic for me."

What he has also lost is his need for Prozac. "I have thrown away the tablets," he said.

Bob is up front about the nervous breakdown he suffered in the early 1990s.

"I started worrying about doing a gig - whether people would like me or throw bottles at me. Then I'd be thinking about where I would stay. I went to the doctor and asked what was happening to me."

What had happened, he was told, was that his nerves were demanding a rest after he had spent years racketing around the showbusiness circuit.

Since then he was been providing material - unpaid - for old friends like Jasper Carrott.

His enthusiasm for the comedy club is infectious. Alternative comedy will be on offer with some headline comedians -Johnny Vegas, Hovis Presley and Neil Anthony will be on stage next Thursday - mixed with "unknowns".

There will be an "open mike" spot when people who contact the club in advance will be given a five-minute try-out.

Also planned is an evening of all-female comedians.

Women comedians can keep up with the men and some of them are better," Bob said.

Bob is still very funny and observant about everyday things - in the lift at the BEN he pointed out how people always watched the floor indicator.

And it always goes in the same order - one, two three, but we still watch," he said.

So is he really going to keep off that stage at the comedy club?

OK, his back was broken and his confidence shattered, but he's fought back and he's still smiling.

"I might be itching to get back on stage and do some compering," he said.

It would be a loss to the comedy scene if he didn't.

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