He's much-abused Manny in Black Books, and team captain in Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but it's as a stand-up comedian that Bill Bailey is happiest. But it wasn't his first choice of profession, as Nick Morrison discovers.

IT'S the afternoon after the night before, and Bill Bailey is getting ready for the second night of his national tour. His Part Troll show is something of a work in progress: it's been on the go for about nine months, but it's constantly evolving.

"It began in Edinburgh, at the festival last year, then it basically kind of had things added to it and things chucked out and... it is a constant process. It is kind of a mixture of all the elements I usually put in, comedy and a lot of music. It is... fun," he concludes.

Part Troll played two weeks in the West End last year, but he says touring - and he has a 50-date itinerary - gives him more opportunity to add new material.

"The show does change a lot more every night, because you are in different places and things happen because you are on tour. You write stuff and you put that in the show, and it can be more flexible."

He talks like he performs: thinking aloud in a gentle meander before abruptly pulling up short, as though he suddenly realises he should get to the point. It's a style that has won him plaudits all over the world, from a Perrier nomination in Edinburgh to a glowing tribute from the New York Times.

It has also won him a loyal live following, although now they are supplemented by fans of Black Books, where he plays Manny, Dylan Moran's put-upon sidekick, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, where he replaced Sean Hughes as team captain two years ago.

"Certainly the younger crowd come from Buzzcocks, and also from Black Books, and an older crowd as well. I love all that - it is great seeing a whole mix of ages and backgrounds in a crowd. It means there is a lot more variety, there is more of a challenge to make everyone laugh.

"I have been touring for a number of years now, and after a while you get a live reputation, which is separate from any television fame. But television means you get people who would not normally go to the theatre, which is always good," he says.

He did his first stand-up gig when he was 18, and became a full-time comedian in the late 80s. And although television has brought him to a wider audience, he's in no doubt which he prefers.

"There is no real substitute for live performance. The audience make it, as opposed to television, which is something you passively watch. I would consider myself to be a comedian, a stand-up who ends up doing all these other things.

"It is the one thing that, as a comic, you have complete control over. I write all the material, I perform it all myself, there is no-one else involved, and you can work as much or as little as you like."

He grew up just outside Bath, and originally set his sights on a career as a musician - hence his prowess on the keyboard - but somewhere along the way got distracted.

"I wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to be the first comic on the moon," he says. "It is funny how you get diverted along various different paths... When I was at school I played in bands and I had fun doing that and you think when you're at school 'I will be in a band and that will be great'.

"I look back now and think if I had actually pursued it, I could have spent my time more fruitfully. It might have worked out and it might have been great. I might have been playing six nights at Wembley. The likelihood is... not."

Instead he walked into a comedy club one night and saw John Hegley, and entered a whole new world, with "people telling jokes and stories and singing songs. It was quite fascinating."

But the flipside of having total control, is that if it goes wrong, and the audience doesn't laugh, it's all down to him, there's no-one else to blame.

"It is very personal. You have written it all and it is what you think is funny and somebody doesn't think that, then what they're saying is they don't really like you, you have to be really thick-skinned," he says, before changing his mind.

"To have a thick skin is probably not a good thing. You have to be sensitive to criticism and you have to be aware of it. You have to be very honest with yourself, and say 'That was a good gig,' or 'That wasn't very good'. I'm very harshly self-critical, and you know yourself whether it is good or bad."

His thinking aloud finally reaches a conclusion: "That is the key to it then, if you are honest with yourself, rather than being thick-skinned and saying lalala."

But even after all this time, there's no guarantee of what will work.

"You spend ages writing, and think 'This is great', and you say this line and the audience just shrugs, and you think 'I deserve better than that', but you make some throw-away, off-the-cuff remark and that gets a bigger laugh. It is not an exact science."

* Part Troll is at Newcastle City Hall on Friday, May 28 and Saturday, May 29. Box office: 0191-261 2606

Published: 11/05/2004