A top town venue has smashed its box office records, thanks to a trio of dates with one of the country’s top funnymen.

Tickets for the three dates with comedian Lee Evans at the Regent Theatre later in the year went on sale on Monday and over a 24 hour period the box office raked in �124,000 – beating its previous record by nearly �50,000.

As well as the Lee Evans ticket sales, the Ipswich Entertainments box office takings were boosted by a string of other fantastic events at the theatre as well as the Ip-art festival and the Concerts in the Park series.

The previous record for a 24 hour period was �78,000, taken on May 15, 2009.

Ipswich Borough Council’s portfolio holder for Culture, Bryony Rudkin, commended the theatre team for all its hard work.

She said: “This is amazing and is proof that we put on some great events in Ipswich. Our theatre and festivals staff work very hard to get a varied and popular programme and this is attracting big audiences.

“I would also like to thank The Evening Star who are doing some fantastic promotions with us so this is very much a team effort.”

The record-breaking takings came in the 24 hour window between 9am on Monday and 9am yesterday morning.

The vast majority of transactions were made online and by credit and debit cards so there is no cash held at the box office.

The Lee Evans shows are exclusive warm-up nights for his 2011 Roadrunner tour, during which he is playing some of the nation’s biggest venues such as Wembley Arena, the O2 arena and the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

The last time the star hit the road, with Lee Evans Big in 2008, he ended up breaking records for the biggest comedy tour of all time, playing 59 dates to more than 500,000 people and selling more than a million tour DVDs.