In fact, I don't watch a lot of contemporary comedy for fear of being influenced by it.
It was a bizarre existence I led in my early twenties - that cliche of the comedian who goes out and entertains a roomful of people and then goes home to a lonely bedsit was unbelievably poignant for me because that was exactly what I was doing. I had periods of real loneliness.
Am I allowed to call myself working-class now? Because obviously I'm now very rich.
I really don't take any interest at all in contemporary comedy.
Well, sanity, I suppose, is getting people to see the world your way.
In 1987, I was in Edinburgh doing my first one-man show. I took part in a kickabout with some fellow comedians and tripped over my trousers and heard this cracking sound in my leg. A couple of days later I went into a coma and was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism.