Fo’s black comedy plays it both ways.In Italy in the Seventies there was a real sense of fear and the play addressed that. The problem with doing Fo’s piece now, is, where is that sense of fear? The police are so good at PR themselves. When I was doing Force of Change at the Royal Court, I spent a day with the head of press at the RUC and he said extraordinary and awful things. Written in 1970, it’s based on the true case of the anarchist Guiseppe Pinelli, who fell to his death from a window at the police station where he was being questioned The police said he jumped. And it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do Accidental Death of an Anarchist, a play about institutional corruption.

He threatened everyone with the sack if we didn’t get back to work immediately. So the next day we organised a press conference to let everyone know what was going on, and the whole of the Portuguese press turned up. I got the company together and we wrote a document outlining our demands to reinstate people and then presented it to the artistic director. It was a shocking abuse of power and made me face corruption head-on for the first time. I was losing my actors and it was impossible to carry on.
It turned out that because the theatre was state-run, the incoming government was basically kamikaze-ing the place; and because they were all state employees, the artistic director just went round sacking people and not paying for things. I had gone to direct Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was to be the production that re-opened the national theatre there. Do you find it easy to get motivated for a performance?There’s nothing that motivates you more than seeing hundreds of people sat in the audience up for a laugh.As well as working as a stand-up, you do Radio 4’s ‘Just a Minute’, have been a captain on BBC1’s ‘Have I got News For You’ and you have had your own radio show.

Can life get any better?Yes, I could grow little hands just above my hips. Think of the money you could save on belts…’Sonic Waffle’: Rothes Halls, Glenrothes (01592 611101), today; Forum Theatre, Billingham (01642 552663), Mon; Auditorium, Grimsby (01472 311311 / 0870 602 1161), Wed; Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe (01394 282126 / 0870 607 7580), Thur; tour continues to 17 March. How do you feel about that?Happier than if I’d been tagged “the new Brian Connelly”.You’re making a new series of ‘Ross Noble Goes Global’ for Radio 4. What’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened to you in the places you’ve visited for the programme?At one gig in the desert the stage was invaded by Bedouins.Your tour ends in Newcastle, close to where you grew up. Is this just a coincidence or are you homesick?A bit of both.You always seem to be bursting with energy. I have always been amazed at the high standard of English spoken around the world. Eddie has challenged me to do a gig in Cantonese, which I may have a crack at.You’ve been tagged “the new Billy Connolly”.