They say you can judge how good an entertainer is by how busy they are and, if that's the case, it must make Frank Sidebottom the greatest cardboard-headed comedian of all time.

The lackadaisical funnyman with the spherical papier mache head has survived through two decades of comedy by one simple motto – he gets involved with everything.

"It's a bit hectic at the moment boss," he says in his typical nasal drawl.

"I'm finishing off one album just for the US and one for Germany. I'm also involved with the Channel 4 film that's being made about me, which should be good.

"We're trying to find somebody to play me. I wanted Pavarotti but unfortunately that's not possible anymore so somebody with smooth hair will do.

"I'm also putting together two art exhibitions – one in Salford and one in London – and I'm writing a soundtrack for a new cartoon series using puppets.

"Oh and I've got to go shopping for my mum. She needs peas, carrots and Robinsons apple and strawberry squash."

That just about sums up the comedian from Timperley, a village in Greater Manchester, who is feted by lovers of cult comedy across the world, but not the mother he still lives with.

He has five websites about himself, he has a weekly programme on Manchester's Channel M and he's just started writing poetry too.

This summer will also see him star at all the major festivals, including Hull Comedy Festival in October and November, and he is already planning a pantomime for early next year – Frank and the Beanstalk is the current idea.

When we speak, he's preparing for a show at London's 100 Club, and at the Lowry Lyric Theatre in Salford Quays, and this Sunday he will arrive in Hull for a date with Carnival 69.

An Audience With Frank Sidebottom will celebrate the comedy club's second anniversary and is sure to be a surreal night of off-the-wall comedy and all-round showbiz entertainment from one of the best in the business.

It will be a mixture of film, slides, song and, of course, Little Frank – Big Frank's hand puppet sidekick – plus anything else that takes his fancy on the night.

"I don't arrive at a show with a game plan to be honest," he says. "I just like to make it up as I go along but I do think I might get a few of the audience up on the stage and singing with me on Sunday.

"That's how the Beatles met – just getting up on a stage and playing music.

"But who knows what we'll be singing. I worked out I write about three songs an hour on average, but I don't write them down, I just try to remember them.

"I did once start jotting them down in a book but I got bored of doing it. Now I carry a book around that I look at before a show – it just says 'go on stage, do something and get off'. It's always served me well."