The Other Side Comedy Club, City Screen caf bar, Coney Street, York

This Sunday, a third-year University of York philosophy student, nocturnal stand-up comic, casual barman and full-time lanky-locked fop by the name of Dan Atkinson opens The Other Side for monthly comic business in the City Screen caf bar.

"I was having headaches and sleepless nights for weeks and weeks over coming up with a name, then it was one of those things where it suddenly dawned on me. That old chicken/road gag," says Dan. "I couldn't believe it hadn't been used before by a comedy club, so I checked on the Internet, and it hasn't been. Great!"

The name is not the only fresh ingredient in The Other Side. Dan is only 21, a student and as a performer on the comedy circuit himself, he has been able to cut out the middle man, the agent. This is truly comedy from the other side to the norm.

"Rather than asking agents who they've got going out on the road, I can go directly to the artists because I do comedy myself, or I use a guy called Geoff Whiting, who has his finger in every comedy pie, especially in the South," he says.

"I'll work with him to get the acts as I admit I'm still relatively inexperienced. At 21, if I approached a 40-year-old hard-nut comedian to play my new little comedy club in York, they'd probably tell me where to get off!"

For Sunday's inaugural show, Dan has secured the comic services of the ubiquitous Hattie Hayridge, once of Red Dwarf, and support act Roger Monkhouse, a Comedy Store regular. Next, on December 2, come Edinburgh Fringe stalwart Ian Stone and the aforementioned Geoff Whiting, the Midnight Show compere at this summer's festival, where Dan spent his time talent-spotting.

The resident compere will be Dan Atkinson himself, swapping bar duties at City Screen for hosting the comedy event in another move to the other side. Initially the candle-lit setting will be the caf bar but there are plans to move downstairs into the basement as soon as City Screen is granted a licence for a space re-developed since the flood damage of last November.

"The basement is wide and short and has a nicely dark atmosphere, which would make it ideal for comedy, as stand-up suits intimacy" says Dan. Both the caf bar and basement have a capacity of just over 100, enabling him to maintain a ticket price of £6, if the move below stairs goes ahead.

Dan's own comedy career began in the double act Dan & Adrian in Bath, Cirencester and Bristol, graduating to a headline spot at Dan Topolski's club in Charing Cross Road, London in 1999. Since going solo, he has performed in London and at Sheffield's Last Laugh Club and he organised the City Scream showcase for University of York student comics at City Screen, where the Evening Press review rated him the pick of the bunch.

In late November he can be spotted on a new ITV show Take The Mike, hosted by the Aussie double act Supergirly, and he hopes to take the laughter line to success on a permanent basis. "Doing stand-up comedy is like being a junkie," says Dan. "I hate it but I can't stop! I feel dreadful before going on but getting my regular fix is necessary now. You get these extreme emotions but doing a good night is the best feeling in the world."

Not entirely seriously, Dan says he is about to fail his Philosophy degree: "Philosophy goes hand in hand with comedy: they're both irreverent and irrelevant. I've got one year left at university and then hopefully I'll concentrate on comedy."

Over the past decade, the Arts Centre, the Barbican and Fibbers, Mike Bennett's Comedy Shack at the Bonding Warehouse, Nick M Randall's Punchlines and York Brewery at Toft Green have all done their turn for comedy in York. From Sunday, Dan Atkinson picks up the mantle, and Friday Night Fever wishes him well.

The Other Side Comedy Club, City Screen caf bar, Coney Street, York, with Hattie Hayridge, Roger Monkhouse and compere Dan Atkinson, Sunday night. Doors open at 7.30pm; live comedy from 8.30pm. Tickets: £6 on 01904 541144; advance booking recommended.