Manic loony kid-comic Russell Howard has chatted with the Guardian recently, likening the Edinburgh Festival to an OFSTED (schools) inspection.

The Mock the Week regular has plenty to say on his early days in standup too…

How did you get started in stand-up?

When I was 19 I went down to a new acts night in Bristol and there was a guy eating a banana with a spoon while singing The Sweeney. I loved the madness of it. I thought, I can’t be worse than that, can I? I went back and started doing five-minute spots.

How did those first performances go?

The first six gigs were brilliant. I was just so energetic and, looking back, I think people were just laughing at this goofball, excited kid. Then on my seventh gig, I properly tanked. It was the first time I did an opening line and it got nothing. I died. That’s the real turning-point, because you think you’ve lost it. You have to do it again to get back to where you were in the earlier gigs. That’s the conveyer belt element of stand-up. You’re always chasing gigs you had, trying to better yourself

Certainly on the evidence of his recent Mock the Week appearances, he’s learning the trade…

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