Face your fears, says Lee as he prepares to open Leamington Comedy Festival

So what? readers may ask. Performing seated opens a whole new side to stand-up gigs, says the comedian, whose new tour, Too Scared to Leave The House, marks his return to the circuit after a ten-year absence.

“I can’t move around so I have to perform sitting down. But at the Derby gig, I realised that people at the back could not see me.

“There’s lots of silly things like that make it completely different. It’s interesting to see how it changes my performances - the dynamic is almost opposite to the way I perform when standing up.”

Lee Hurst may be best remembered for his long stint as a regular on the BBC’s They Think It’s All Over, but he sees his time on the show as more of a ‘whistle-stop tour’ amidst all his other comedic enterprises.

He says: “It was a giggle, but it was work, it has to be said. There were pressures to deliver. But I enjoyed it.”

Lee, who is in the middle of overseeing the building of his own comedy club at the bottom of a new hotel complex in London, gave the Courier a snatch of his time during a hectic 55-date tour - including a gig tonight (Tuesday) as part of the Spa Centre’s Leamington Comedy Festival.

Referring to the tour’s bizarre title, he says: “It was originally going to be ‘The End of the World’ because it was supposed to be the end of the world in 2012, but I found out that someone else had already used that title, so I came up with this instead.

“It ended up branching what the scope of the show was about. Now it’s more about things that are fearful for people - fears for the future, childhood fears, stresses, phobias - anything like that.”

So is Lee too scared to leave the house? “I can’t be,” he says, “I have to walk my dog.

“Seriously, for me, if you are worried about something, face it.

“The quicker you face it, the better. A lot of people let things dwell and carry on and on and their stress levels can become very high.”

Having found his feet in the comedy world by asking for a job “moving chairs around” at a comedy venue in exchange for free entry during the 1980s and then ending up running the joint, this man is clearly not afraid of putting himself out there.

“I always knew I wanted to work for myself and I have been fortunate enough to be self-employed since 1989,” he says.

“I don’t watch any comedy on TV, so I don’t get influenced by any of that. I just do my own thing.”

As well as They Think It’s All Over, Lee has been a regular on Have I Got News For You and on radio, been a team captain on Hold The Front Page and presented Wriggling with Eels and a guest on numerous other shows.

He says: “What keeps me hoping to constantly improve is the desire - you want the next gag and you want to deliver it and polish it and hone it so it’s a grade A piece of material.

“Even when I improvise on stage, I come off and think about it and how I can improve it.

“You should always question yourself, do a post mortem on the gig - but remember to enjoy it when it’s good.”

Lee Hurst is appearing at the Spa Centre Studio tonight (Tuesday) at 7.45pm as part of the venue’s Leamington Comedy Festival. Tickets cost £13 (web price £12). Call 334418 or go online.