You may not know who Alex Lowe is but you really should. He is the man behind Barry from Watford, the eccentric, elderly gent and scourge of radio phone-in shows. Not only that but Barry is limbering up for a live tour when he teams up with Angelos Epithemiou. You can catch their New Power Generation shows at these places here.

• What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies and/or check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt and check for spinach between your teeth )?

The brilliant comedian Dan Evans once said to me that however nervous or not ‘up for it’ he feels, he always tries to enjoy the jokes being told on stage just before he goes on.   So there’s a chance you feel buoyed and like having a laugh before getting on there.  That’s something I try to do, and I was also recently advised to do one of those yoga poses – I think it’s ‘the Cobra’, which induces a sense of power, but I’m never going to get down on the floor and do that, so I do a version of it where I raise myself up a bit from my torso a bit like Andreas Möller when he scored that penalty against us and everyone accused him of “showboating”.

2. What irritates you?

I can’t bear that suburban closed mindedness; when anything other than a discussion about Eastenders or house prices or whatever is dismissed as pretentious. Also, anyone who thinks it’s their job to keep other people’s “feet on the ground”. Oh, and of course Gregg Wallace. 

3. What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

I offered out a hard bloke in the school playground once for a fight when I was 15.   The one and only fight I have ever had. He and his mates had run after a friend of mine in the holidays. This hard lad was in the year below me and in the way these age hierarchies work at school, I just assumed he wouldn’t be up for it as I was a year older. It was only after he had punched me in the face a couple of times and the whole school of a 1000 kids swarmed round that I realised my mistake and backed out. That was a lesson. My god, the shame!

4. What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?

My then girlfriend (now my wife) and I went on a trip down the river in Kerala, India.  Firstly I jumped in the water, where there were snakes, which was pretty stupid but then even more stupidly, in an attempt to be at one with the locals I drank some of their home-made moonshine at a local village.  God knows what was in it, but I have never been so ill in my life.  I was laid up for two days unable to return to our hotel.  I really thought I would never get back to Britain alive.

5. What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?

It always amazes me in the acting/comedy world that people don’t know each other as you’d imagine. Growing up, I assumed the entertainment industry was like a huge fraternity of actors and celebrities that all knocked around together but I find that often it’s a job like any other and people are just thinking about their own stuff. They’re not meeting up for a boozy lunch and wagging their fingers at each other, with knowing, ironic smiles. Or maybe it is like that and I’m just not a part of it…..which is a possibility as well, I suppose.

Interview continues here.