Double Sony Award winner and Chortle award nominee Gary Delaney is bringing his Purist tour back to Amersham by popular demand.

The razor sharp one-liner comedian has added another date at The Potters Arms to his latest tour after his sell-out performance there last month.

So if you missed it the first time, what can you expect from his latest show?

“It’s a very stripped down show. There is just lots of jokes, so if you want jokes, come along. If you want to hear my life story, then don’t come along. If you don’t mind some naughty jokes then it’s the show for you. It’s not all squeaky clean.

“There’s over 200 one liners in the show. They pretty much cover every topic but not in very much detail. I try to make the audience laugh as much as I can within an hour. Loads of topics will be touched upon but I'm not telling a story like other comedians do.

“I take the mick out of myself a lot and that always goes down well with audiences and it seems to resonate with them.”

The comedian might be a natural on stage now, but it didn’t always come so easy to him. He tells how his college pal, TV presenter, author and journalist Martin Lewis, encouraged him into the business.  

“I was always that annoying idiot who thinks they are funny, someone who always had a smart arse reply to everything. I've always loved comedy and wanted to do it but I never had the nerve.

“I did my first gig when I was 24. I went to college with Martin and I used to write jokes for him. He kept trying to get me into doing my own stand up gigs and bet me £20 that I wouldn’t be able to get a gig. I did my first show in ’97 but then I had a couple of bad gigs and I lost my bottle. I was young and stupid back then but I went back three or four years later and started again and things went a lot better for me then.

“It started out as a hobby but when people started putting money in my hand, it really opened my eyes. I still get nervous though. I don’t trust comedians who say they don’t. The neurotic people are the funniest. I believe that nerves are good. They keep you focused and sharp.”

And sometimes things just don’t go your way on stage.

“My worst gig was in Germany. One liners are all about puns and word play and you have to have a real grasp of a language to be able to make people laugh. I didn’t speak any German, but the organisers said it would be fine, just don’t speak English too fast.

“The audience did understand English, but they didn’t understand when I said something that had two meanings. So to them, I was just a guy saying weird things. The other German comics were having a blast and I thought it would go really well for me, until I walked out on to the stage. It was awful. I didn’t even want to go out on stage again at the end to take a bow.”

The comedian also appears regularly on television and many will recognise him from popular panellist show Mock the Week alongside comics like Dara Ó Briain and Hugh Dennis.

“Most of the guys on Mock the Week are lovely. Andy Parsons is a gentleman, Hugh Dennis is great. They’re all great guys. When you first appear on a programme, when you’re the new guy, the other don’t have to come and help you but they were so friendly, they offered me advice which was really nice.

“People think there is a lot of rivalry in comedy, but 90 per cent of the comedians I know are genuinely very nice people. We all know it could be us going out there and coming a cropper.”

Gary Delaney brings his Purist tour to The Potters Arms in Winchmore Hill on June 4. Tickets available from www.pottersarms.co.uk or call Richard on 01494 726222.