'No sex, drugs and rock'n'roll for me. Just give me a pasty, says comedian Justin Moorhouse'

When: Saturday, March 30, 7.45pm

Where: Hull Truck, Ferensway, Hull

Tickets: £17.50 To book: 01482 323638

Visit: www.justinmoorhouse.com and www.hulltruck.co.uk

Radio: Justin has appeared all the national BBC radio stations now, except Radio 1. He even performed on classical music Radio Three as part of a spoken word performance.

Sitcom: He is currently planning a TV version of his Radio Four sitcom Everyone Quite Likes Justin.

Clever: In the 2012 series of Celebrity Mastermind, he was one of the round winners. His chosen specialist subject was Les Dawson

He's the former salesman who parlayed his comic talents into a stand-up career. Ian Midgley discovers why one night in Hull made Justin Moorhouse savour every moment

H ow do you say you used to be a stand-up comedian?

There is nothing sadder, says funnyman Justin Moorhouse, than saying you are an ex-clown.

"It's like saying I used to bring joy and laughter into people's lives but now I'm back doing the package courier sales job," he grimaces. "It would be soul destroying."

That's why, after first dabbling his toe into the world of stand-up comedy at the relatively venerable age of 29, the comic says there was no going back.

Not for him the nine-to-five drudgery of sales targets and cold calling – in a previous life he did sell courier services – now his eye was on the bright lights of the northern comedy club scene.

Thirteen years later and he is still at it.

The clubs may now be bigger and his name may regularly appear on TV and radio shows, but the thrill of performing is still the same.

"I've never looked back," he grins. "Always look forward. It's the best job in the world."

His latest tour, Justin Time – a loose collection of anecdotes and observations laced with bags of northern charm and reams of gags – arrives at Hull Truck on Saturday, March 30.

"The title's deliberately vague so I can talk about anything I want," he says.

"It's basically me on stage with five or six stories and then I just ramble and talk about whatever I want.

"I think so far this tour I've talked about the Olympics, riots, owls, my family, about my daughter training to be a nun at the age of eight and whether I'm a good dad and husband or not. There's a little bit of sex in there too, but not too much. I'm not blue."

The Mancunian comedian says he is looking forward to being back in Hull – a place where he reached a major epiphany when he played the old Truck theatre, in Spring Street, years ago.

"I don't want to get too deep in the Hull Daily Mail," chuckles the comic, who first leapt to public prominence in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights playing Young Kenny – spending most of the series with a tiger stenciled on his face.

"But I remember playing Spring Street and having a really great night. Everybody loved it. We had a cracking time.

"Then at the end of the show I was out back having a fag, and everyone was getting their cars, saying 'night mate, great show'.

"I was really buzzing, really on a high. There's nothing like being on that stage and carrying the whole room with you. I'd imagine it's the same for anyone in showbusiness, whether you're a comedian, a rock star or whatever.

"Then the stage manager comes to me and says 'everyone's gone now, you can get your stuff off the stage now if you like.'

"So, I went in and the place was completely empty – and that's when it hit me; that crash you feel after coming off stage on a high and there just being emptiness. It was the worst I'd ever had it.

"That's why rock stars try to fill that void with drink and drugs, and sex, they're trying to recreate that feeling, that high.

"That's when I realised this whole thing is so transient – it's here one minute and gone the next. You've just got to enjoy it while you can.

"Luckily I had to drive home that night, because if I'd been in a hotel I would probably have hit the bottle.

"As it was, I just stopped off at a service station on the M62 and bought a pasty.

"No sex and drugs and rock'n'roll for me. Give me a cheese and onion Ginsters any day."