Interview: Solihull-comedian Gary Delaney speaks ahead of Wolverhampton Slade Rooms show

The comic, who grew up around Dorridge, near Solihull, has been on the comedy circuit for almost 20 years and will headline Wolverhampton's Slade Rooms on Thursday. He's the only comic ever to have got two gags in the same Top 10 for Dave's TV Funniest Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe. And he's glad to be touring after his last venture was extended four times and took in more than 200 venues.

He enjoys taking his show to Edinburgh, prior to each tour: "It's scary, exciting, exhilarating and who needs sleep anyway?

"It's like sending your new baby off to school and not knowing if he'll come home with a Nobel prize or Chinese burns and a dunce's cap. It's weird knowing everyone's going to judge your performance, it's like being on the X Factor, or having sex with someone for the first time."

Not that Delaney is particularly good at creating an audience. When he flyers his shows he tends to put people off: "I'm not a great people person. When I've tried to flyer myself, if anything I talk people out of going. 'I'm on at the same time as Daniel Kitson? Well, you should probably see him then. He's great isn't he'? "Writing a show is an ongoing process. I'm always writing jokes. It's time for a new show when you look at the pile and go 'that's enough'. For me that's about every three years."

Delaney has become a household name after starring on Mock the Week, Dave's One Night Stand and BBC Radio 5 Live's 7 Day Sunday.

The multiple award-winning stand-up is known for his quick wit and his amazing one-liners – as well as marrying fellow top comic Sarah Millican in 2013.

Yet despite having such an expert critic in his own home, Delaney still gets nervous before a show. He famously lost his bottle during the early stage of his career – and took three years off.

"Yes, but it's also the best part of being a comic. A new bit really flying is exhilarating. Trying 10 minutes of brand new stuff at a little club is the only other time, apart from your first ever gig, when you walk on stage not knowing if any of what you've written is actually funny.

"I first dabbled in 1997 and did a number of gigs in London. They went OK, but I had a bad gig and lost my nerve for about three years – a terrible mistake in career terms! I started again when I was 27."

He lists Emo Philips as his biggest inspiration and says the best advice he has received was to gig every night and write every day.

"I was first exposed to Emo Philips, the American comic who was on Channel 4 in the 1980s, since then I've discovered loads. The old Jewish-American comic Henny Youngman – the guy who said: 'Take my wife, please' – was a favourite. I loved all the old comics like Ken Dodd and Jimmy Cricket.

"I've got recordings of Max Miller from the 1930s doing jokes about Hitler, I love that kind of heritage, of blokes just standing up and doing a few gags. Woody Allen was also an incredible joke writer."

Tickets are available from the venue.

By Andy Richardson