Ventriloquism looks like it is having what you might call its rock and roll moment. Paul Zerdin won America’s Got Talent and in London Nina Conti is about to embark on what must surely be the longest-ever West End run for a member of this venerable variety profession. Certainly the longest run since the golden age of vaudeville. Conti plays 18 shows at the Criterion Theatre from February 25, but she will not be alone onstage. There are her puppets of course – you can probably expect Monkey to have a cameo at some point – but the audience also plays its part. In recent years Conti, who got into voice-throwing via the late, great Ken Campbell, has become a brilliant ad libber, coming up with brilliant improvised routines. In her most famous piece she invites fans up onstage to become human dummies. What happens next? Well, you just have to see it to believe it.

Nina Conti: In Your Face runs at Criterion Theatre, W1, 25 Feb - 12 Mar, 7:30pm, Tickets: £15 - £35.

1. 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 teeth)?

I pace like a zoo tiger, I’m told this is a form of displacement behaviour, an attempt disassociate from the cage. Standing in the wings is a very caged albeit brief moment when you can’t run away because your name is being introduced in a bellowing voice. I sometimes lift the monkey out the bag for some eye contact in the marbles, just to gain an assurance of solidarity.

2. What irritates you?

When my phone corrects my swearing

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

A pissed up Christmas party for some millionaire douchebags in the property market where I was vocally drowned out, lifted off the ground by two of them and had money stuffed past my bra and down my dress - the experience was dangerously enraging, I’d do my third bungee jump in an instant before walking into that room again.

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

That gig

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

That gig, sorry I’m still cross about it. What has surprised me the most I suppose is that it has grown and keeps growing, I honestly thought I was picking up that monkey for a one summer stint. But it's a pandora’s box of fun.

Interview continues here.