Tim Rendle, who ran the Lion's Den Comedy Club and was a well-established popular figure on the comedy circuit has died.

Rendle, who was in his early forties, was diagnosed with cancer earier this year and was initially given eighteen months but the cancer progressed much faster than expected. 

His Tuesday night club was also called the Comedy Car Crash and was known for featuring open mic acts. It ran at Bar Rumba in Shaftesbury Avenue.

According to this interview with blogger John Fleming he had had a colourful career before becoming involved in the comedy scene. "He has been a painter, barman and baby sitter, web designer, magician and spy hole fitter. He has sold windows and doors, installed security systems, flipped burgers, busked with a drum and his first ever self-employed job was as a car washer when he was nine."

He also told Fleming that he had an unusual upbringing: "“Yeah. Amish-ish. The Hutterian Brethren, down in Robertsbridge in East Sussex.”

Picture: John Fleming.