I started doing comedy just as myself, because I thought, "This is what's expected, you're meant to tell stories and do observations." And then I started to realize that I wanted to mix it up a bit, so I started to doing songs, and I had a little keyboard onstage and would bring in little props. Then I thought about the idea of talking about a character and becoming the character onstage. So, it sort of morphed into being stand-up that was more character based, and I found that's the stuff I got the better reaction from and was more exciting for me.

Fans feel they know me, so they want me to be on-the-spot funny, and it's hard to fulfil their expectations.

I think sometimes people become quite emotional about the characters as well, and that's pretty cool that you can get that emotion out of people. And I think that's more my motivation than like, "Hey I want to be the funny guy, I want to be that famous funny guy." That doesn't sit as well with me as the idea of taking people on this ride and taking them into the illusion of the characters. That's much more exciting for me.

It's barely OK for me to be dressed up as a black guy. But part of me kind of enjoys provoking people.

You can't get any better than TV on HBO, ABC and BBC3.

I never like to think of any character as being over. I'm always thinking of different ways of bringing them back.

I didn't do very well academically; I was always in the bottom class.