6. What do your parents think of your job?
Concern mostly. I think they think that I can't look after myself. Whenever I see them now I try and make them feel guilty for the shitty hand their generation dealt us and make out that's why I don't have a real job, which is only ever half a joke. I was just round there actually, my dad's just bought a big fucking SUV because apparently his lot didn't do enough damage and he wants to give the planet one last kicking before he shuffles off into oblivion. He's beyond giving a shit about what happens after he dies now. They're nice people though, they give me money sometimes.

7. What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?
Probably the first ten years.

8. I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?
There's a phenomenal amount of self-loathing, I have a real problem with that. But then there's also the overblown sense of entitlement too. Maybe those things go hand in hand? I hate myself because I don't have the success I think I deserve? Nobody will give me a TV show so I wish I was dead.

9. How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?
I think I just about break even. The gigs I do for money cover the costs of the gigs I do for no money. If my wife ever loses her job we're in deep shit. I would like to be able to provide a little more, that is a source of shame, but the stuff's too odd, or at least that's what people tell me. I thought I was quite mainstream for a while, but everybody else kept telling me it was weird and bleak and not funny.

10. How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?
I'm definitely not successful enough to have any insight here. I do feel like the advice I got from other acts a lot of the time was pretty worthless. Advice from other comics is almost always just them telling you how they did it, how they got where they are, which is usually not something you can apply to your own career. The whole point of stand-up is to be different to all the others right? People come to see you to get your specific viewpoint, that's what you sell, if they can get it off other acts they don't need you. There seems to be little crops of interchangeable comedians now, little groups of types, I don't remember that being a thing before. It's presumably because there are so many comedians now. I suppose if that's the case then you need to be very lucky but then luck is a factor in everything. There are people in all walks of life who are brilliant at what they do and totally ignored by everybody. It doesn't matter. I'm not sure I have had much in the way of breaks, if I have then I've not recognised them and definitely squandered them.

11. Alan Davies has said that comedians fall into two categories - golfers and self-harmers. The former just get on with life, the latter are tortured artists. Which are you – or do you think you fit into a third category?

That seems pretty accurate. I don't really understand the people who just do it as a job. They get on stage and are brilliant and then come off and there's nothing wrong with them, it makes no sense to me. How can you be funny if you're not really broken? But there they are. They are rarer though, those people. The fuck-ups are usually the funnier ones.

12. Who is your favourite person ever and why - not including family or friends or other comedians?

There's a whole bunch of people who have worked at Nintendo who would be very hard to separate Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, Hideki Konno, Eiji Aonuma. All those folks. My life would look very different without those guys. If I was forced to pick just one then I'd probably say Gunpei Yokoi, the inventor of the Game Boy as well as a bunch of other brilliant things.

13. Do you keep your drawers tidy and if not why not?

Drawers? I can't afford drawers, I'm not a millionaire. I keep all my shit on the floor.