Women, said Chairman Mao, hold up half the sky. But they don't hold up more than a quarter of the average Comedy Festival, writes Alex Dawson.

Leicester Comedy Festival is no different, with women stand-ups in a noticeably small minority.

So tonight, let's hear it for the girls – the ones that risk their sanity and their dignity in trying to make complete strangers laugh.

Arguably the best-known at this year's Festival is Shappi Khorsandi, who performs at The Little Theatre on Friday, February 19.

"I just talk about stuff on my mind. I enjoy messing about, having a bit of fun and talking about the joys of divorce – who knew that it could be such fun?''

She says she enjoys Leicester for its "intelligent, cosmopolitan crowd", but admits the city hasn't always been her favourite.

An early-career Leicester gig in 2006, was performed to an unimpressed and largely silent audience at Jongleurs.

"I was so upset that on the train back to London, the conductor upgraded me to first class out of sheer pity".

You'll get a harder edge of comedy from Zoe Lyons, who's at Firebug on Saturday, February 20.

Her favourite review, she claims, came from Germaine Greer who called her "astonishingly vicious".

"I was delighted with that comment" said Zoe. "I take it as a massive compliment. I enjoy sticking the knife in sometimes."

Her comedy targets range from penguins to the Pope, and of stand-up, she says, "it's a male-dominated profession, but that's never been something that has ever really bothered me".

Former Daily Mail diary journalist Bridget Christie says: "I always look forward to coming back to Leicester." One very good reason is that she met her future husband at Leicester Comedy Festival – fellow comedian Stewart Lee.

Her act is a revealing trawl through her five years working for a national newspaper, and includes fascinating anecdotes about Peter Stringfellow, Liam Gallagher and Gene Wilder among others.

She's at The Y Theatre on Wednesday.

There's a brand new show from TV favourite Sarah Millican at the Richard Attenborough Centre on Sunday, February 14. She's even called it "Work In Progress".

The idea is that she tries out a new show before taking it to the Edinburgh Festival later this year.

Or you can play safe and see her established show Typical Woman, at the same venue, on the same night.

"Wonderfully wrong ... incredibly funny" says Metro.

Look out, too, for Susan Murray at Kayal on Saturday, February 20.

She's fascinated by the regions of Britain we come from.

In fact, Murray's show is actually called Kipper Tie? Two Sugars Please.

And if you don't know what that means, then you've never asked for a beverage in the Black Country.