In one of the highlights, renowned American comedian Scott Capurro, who has made an appearance in Mrs. Doubtfire and Star Wars: Phantom Menace, will take the stage on Tuesday, the black humour evening.

The new addition this year is an all-English night on Friday, featuring performances by Daniel-Ryan Spaulding from Canada, Prince Abdi from the UK, Gleb Tugushev from Russia and Dave Hill from the US.

The total of 26 comedians featured include the Balkan stand-up scene stars such as Boštjan Gorenc - Pižama of Slovenia, and Marina Orsag and Ivan Šarič from Croatia.

Held for the 9th year running, the Panč stand-up comedy festival is the first of its kind in Slovenia. It was established by Tin Vodopivec and Andrej Težak - Tešky, who will act as the host.

The first attempts at establishing a stand-up comedy scene in Slovenia go back to 2001, but the type of comedy did not appear as an art in its own right until 2005.