IT'S hot-flush Barbie - possibly more rancid than ever before.

That's how comedienne Jenny Eclair bills her latest show, subtitled Middle-Aged Bimbo - and who are we to argue?

Sixty minutes of showing off from the mistress of stand-up are promised in the comedienne-turned-novelist's set.

"Loads of new jokes," she says, "and they're not all about pooh."

Bawdy...ballsy...brassy...bitchy...These are the words most commonly employed to describe Eclair, now, without doubt, one of Britain's funniest stand-up turns, male or female.

Her act may be resolutely below-the-belt, but the smut is served up in with wit, imagination and that trademark manic energy. And, thankfully, there's no sign that she's mellowing with age.

The first woman to win the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival, Eclair has become a fixture of the international comedy circuit, with appearances including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.

On TV, she probably isn't as well known as she should be, although she did have her own Channel 5 series, Jenny Eclair's Private Function, in the late Nineties.

Continuing to demonstrate her versatility, she makes regular guest appearances on the long-running Radio 4 panel game, Just A Minute, and has written and starred in her own one-woman stage show, Mrs Nosey Parker.

More recently, she published her first novel, Camberwell Beauty, and toured the UK in the Edinburgh and Beyond FHM Comedy Tour.

The show starts at 7.45pm.

* Tickets cost from £10. For tickets and information, call the box office on 023 8065 2333.

ANDREW WHITE