The loveable 35-year-old funnyman is near the end of his second major national stand-up tour, which comes to the Futurist Theatre next Wednesday.

"It's going well, nice and bonny, and everything's selling out, so I can't complain," he said in typically matey fashion.

"I think people know what to expect from me. I always want to give people something they can understand and I like lots of audience interaction. It's a proper show."

Paddy made his stand-up debut with a gig at Lancaster University before he received his big break in showbiz.

Cast as Paddy, the womanising doorman, in the seminal sitcom Phoenix Nights in 2000, he went on to star and co-write the hit spin-off show Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, with Kay.

Two of his former co-stars, Dave "Jerry St Clair" Spikey and Justin "Young Kenny" Moorhouse, have performed in Scarborough this year, and Paddy has not ruled out the old gang reuniting for the occasional TV special.

The Bolton-based comic said: "I would never say never – it's just that everyone is doing their own thing at the moment. But I'm sure we will get together again at some stage."

A former fitness instructor, Paddy left the industry behind when Kay persuaded him to leave his full-time job, after the success of the first series of Phoenix Nights.

Before that, he tried his hand at being a waiter, a supermarket warehouse worker and a lifeguard.

He also had a stint as a holiday rep for Club 18-30 in Corfu – surely a dream job for a man in his early-20s with an eye for the ladies?

"It was horrible," he said. "I thought it would be great fun but it turned out I was more like a glorified salesman."

Paddy last appeared in Scarborough as part of his 2006 tour The Dark Side.

For his latest tour, titled Paddy McGuinness Plus You, he invited performers to send in a DVD of their act and has chosen a few of the best ones to be his support acts for shows in their region.

But he wants to make one thing clear. "I'm not going to have any mentalists!" he joked. "It's not going to be like the first few weeks of X Factor. Singers, jugglers, I'll have a look at anyone. But they do have to have talent."