Widely recognised from his role in Phoenix Nights, alongside long-term friend Peter Kay, the comic from Bolton splits his time between television and touring.

He said: "There is nothing better than standing on stage with the spotlight on you and hearing the audience clapping and laughing in front of you.

"It is hard work putting a show together and I am currently writing material for this tour, I believe it is the toughest job to do but I can imagine someone reading this who is surfacing a road will disagree with me with me.

The new tour, called The Paddy McGuinness Plus You! Live, brings a fresh approach to his work as it will be featuring acts by relative unknowns.

Paddy said: "I had the idea about a year ago when I wasn't on tour.

"I thought about the X-Factor and shows like that and thought it would be a good idea on this tour to give someone a break.

"There are a lot of good acts in pubs and clubs who do not get that break so I am asking acts to send me a DVD, it could be a comedy, singing, juggler or magician act.

"There will be none of that full-on face-to-face with judges or public voting; I will choose three acts and one of each will appear on stage with me at different venues.

"It can't be bad as the overall winner will get a cash prize of £2,000 and will also be in my new DVD.

"The last one, The Dark Side, sold more than 250,000 copies."

When asked where he gets the inspiration for his stand-up routines, he said he draws much from his own experiences and from the people he has met.

Nine years ago, he made his debut on the club circuit.

Prior to this he had held a number of different jobs, but none that captured his undivided attention as being the job to stay in.

When at school he had ambitions to become a laboratory technician, but that soon fell to the wayside.

"I have nothing against university and the people who want to go there," he said, "but I just wanted to get some money in my pocket so I had a number of jobs.

"When you are at work you want to be around people who you can have fun with and I was lucky that in the jobs I had I did have fun."

These jobs ranged from being a cleaner, warehouseman, a stint as an 18-30 holiday rep, working for a plant hire company and as a fitness instructor at Horwich Leisure Centre, five miles from his home town, which was the last of what he calls his 'normal' job years.

It was his friend Peter Kay who gave him his first taste of television, making his debut in Channel 4's The Comedy Lab, where he took on the role of Terry, a work-shy employee in Peter's The Services.

On the back of that appearance, Peter Kay offered him the part of the doorman in That Peter Kay Thing. which led to the massive spin-off series Phoenix Nights.

However it was not until filming of the second series started that Paddy felt confident enough to make a living out of comedy and joined the list of successful northern comics – Barry Cryer, Bernard Manning and Mike Harding, to name but a few.

Paddy said: "The north is one of those places which has seen a lot of poverty and hardship and one of the things you need in those situations is a sense of humour.

"I believe a lot of the famous comedians came from poor backgrounds and survived only because they developed a sense of humour."

He can currently be seen in Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure, a show following him and fellow comedian Rory McGrath around the country getting involved in outrageous 'sporting' events and other things that blokes of their age shouldn't really be doing.Working on the scripts for the forthcoming tour, Paddy refuses to let any secrets out of the bag, but he did say: "It will be an entertaining show where people can let their hair down.

"I want everyone who comes along to laugh and have a good time and go home in a happy mood.

"I don't like this chin-stroking style of comedy which I think is too 'arty'.

"It is a family show but there may be the odd swear word, which is why there is a 16-year age limit.

"On my last tour I met some families backstage who had children aged around seven or eight and the parents said they all loved it and I hope I get the same reaction this time.

"I could have done a tour last year, but I can only do it when I am ready and it feels right, which it does now.

"I won't do a tour just for the sake of selling tickets."

Going back to helping get an 'unknown' act in front of a bigger audience through the non-auditioning process for Paddy McGuinness Plus You! Live tour, the Boltonian had a few words of advice for budding comedians.

He said: "What I used to do is drop some material into a conversation with friends or relations.

"I started telling a story and then adding the humour and then gauging the reception.

"If it is working I would recommend taking it along to some family club open night and standing up in front of an audience.

"You will know 100 per cent from that one appearance if you have got what it takes."

Paddy's last tour, The Dark Side, was the fastest selling of 2006, taking in 115 sold-out dates and selling more than 160,000 tickets
The 2008 tour will be stopping off in Wellingborough on Thursday, September 1 with a show at The Castle.

Tickets cost £17.50 and are available from 01933 270007.