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After a premier at the Edinburgh Festival, Ross is taking his Unrealtime show on the road off the back of appearances on TV and especially Radio 4 where his Ross Noble Goes Global series has been one the network's biggest recent comedy hits.

He's been performing since he was smuggled into his local comedy club at the age of 15. Ross admitted: "I was a bit of a weird kid - I'd bring in giant sponge heads into school. Some people would find it really funny, and others just thought I was an idiot."

Ross Noble

Since then he hasn't looked back, seeing his exciting and spontaneous humour win him huge accolade in the comedy world - including a Time Out Award for best stand-up.

"My parents wanted me to be a chimney sweep - we didn't even have a chimney, the middle class equivalent was licking the radiators or descaling the kettle ... with my hair."

Ross Noble talks to Richard Cartridge - Listen to the interview in full (56k)

This ability to turn life round and see the funny side in just about anything has got him into trouble: "It's easy to make people laugh when they're expecting it, it's when they're not expecting it when you have problems!

"I was in a fancy restaurant - I'm normally mistrustful of restaurants without numbers beside the menu, and this one didn't even have the prices. Someone said have the lobster so I though, yeah, why not, I've never had lobster before.

"There is this thing where if you break the end of it, you can control the pincer independently. So I put this lobster up my sleeve so I had a pincer hand ... I thought it was really funny, but I looked round and only one person was laughing, everyone else is thinking, 'he's become a lobster boy'.

Ross' Unrealtime tour

My mother always said there's a time and a place but I've never been very good at telling the time or knowing where I am!"

Ross' stand-up show is two hours of his side-on look at everyday events - constantly evolving with what's going on in his head and in the world: "No matter how you're feeling, you get an injection of adrenaline just before you go on stage.

"I saw a family who had broken down on the side of the motorway the other day and they had moved their toddler in his pushchair up onto the bank out of harms way, but all I could think of is that they were on a grandstand on a day out, watching the cars on a filthy layby. I started laughing and I was at it for about an hour before I had to pull over, I was laughing so much!

"You've got to make sure you're not one of these people who starts laughing at things in the street - otherwise someone will give you a smack in the mouth cos they think you're laughing at them!"