I'll never forget my first experience of swede. It was at school and I thought I was getting mashed potato. I've never got over it.

And like the old stereotype, I overcame my shyness by making my friends laugh.

Am I allowed to call myself working-class now? Because obviously I'm now very rich.

I remember being fascinated by the very nature of comedy from the age of 10; why is this funny, and that isn't?

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.

I was trying to organise my DVDs into a sort of chronological order, and I am afraid that it all trailed off after the Sixties.

I think having an outsider's viewpoint is interesting and good, especially for a comedian.