Submissions for the UK Jewish Comedian of the Year Award 2016 have officially opened.

Applicants are requested to send a five-minute video clip of their material to JW3, a Jewish Community Centre on Finchley Road, with the warning that the video will be turned off if it goes over this time.

The live competition will be at JW3 as part of the UK Jewish Comedy Festival.

There will be eight acts in the first heat taking place on Thursday, December 1 at 6.30pm.

The final will see the best four acts compete for the title and prize on Saturday, December 3 at 7pm.

Competitors will have a five- minute set in the first stage and finalists will perform for seven to 10 minutes each.

Jewish Comedy Festival is now in its third year. Events include Laughing From the Margins, a night of comedy that celebrates and satirises the differences that unite the Jewish community. Funny Women 2015 award winner Desiree Burch, from New York, has written for NBC and E4, won a Fringe First Award in 2015, and has delivered a talk for TEDx.

She is joined by London’s Dane Baptiste – who has his own BBC show, Sunny D – and has appeared on BBC’s Live at the Apollo and was the first black British nominee of the Foster’s Best Newcomer Award in 2014.

Alice Fraser is the final person to join the show, she has delivered a TEDx talk, was a nominee for the Sydney Comedy Festival Best Newcomer 2013, is a regular writer for Sydney’s Channel 10 show, The Project and once debated against Julian Assange.

There will be writing workshops, competitions, Comedy Club 4 Kids, Yiddish Humour, a performance by Sol Benstein and can you guess what an Imam, a Rabbi and a Priest will do together?

Walk into a bar, of course.

JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, NW3 6ET, UK Jewish Comedy Festival runs from December 1 to 4. For details, visit jw3.org.uk.