Comic's joke-telling marathon!

It might sound funny, but for one comedian the record for telling the most jokes in an hour is a serious business.

Tim Vine may be known as a maestro of the one-liner but he will need to rattle through an awful lot of gags in 60 minutes if he is to secure entry into the Guinness Book of Records.

In fact, he has to deliver 363 jokes, or one every 9.9 seconds, to beat the current record-holder.

In line with strict Guinness World Record regulations, the attempt will be held in front of a paying audience (although Vine admits to encouraging friends to offer supporting chuckles). And just to make matters tougher, each joke has to generate laughter to be counted.

"The honest truth is that this is not entertainment, more of a memory feat," said Vine, who takes to the stage of the Soho Theatre tonight. "There will be more lines than British Rail - but mine will have to be on time."

Vine, 37, who won the Perrier best newcomer award for his 1995 Edinburgh festival show, was today trying to commit his material to memory. "I don't know if it will work - it is a bit of an uncertain science," he said. "It is important that the audience joins in, so I hope they have been in training too. The poor people will stumble out of the theatre afterwards."

Vine, whose TV credits include The Sketch Show, added: "Somebody once told me I was up to 11 jokes a minute, so I did start to wonder if there was some sort of record I could beat.

An hour suits me." He will be allowed to use props as an aide-memoire. A wooden gate introduces the gag: "I have a distinctive gate."

The stand-up will use as much original material as possible in his attempt on the record, which has been held since 2002 by Estonian comedian Erkki Kolu. But he plans to end with a joke his father told him when he was just five. If you want to hear it, however, you'll have to go to the show tonight. The comedian's debut DVD, Tim Vine - Live, is released next month.