Gary Delaney shares more than just a one-liner with Chaddabox

Courtesy of Damion Larkin

Adventurous stand-up Gary Delaney is set for a performance at Stoke-on-Trent's renowned Regent Theatre. His dangerous one-liners will push you to the boundaries of Frankie Boyle and could send you crying either way. Check out the 38-year-old at Hanley's best comedy venue on Saturday (March 17).

Q: Have you performed at the Regent Theatre before?

A: Never done there before, but I've heard it's a really nice crowd so I'm looking forward to it.

Q: What do you know about the other performers on the night; Rob Rouse and Bethany Black?

A: Love them both; they're really funny acts. Rob is one of the best headliners in the UK. I think timings dictate that I'm on after him which is a bit scary if I'm honest!

Q: What are you doing at the moment?

A: Working in clubs most evenings, writing jokes for TV shows and the occasional film during the day.

Q: How would you describe your comedy?

A: Just stupid jokes that I find funny. I love gags. Short, funny, quotable gags. I like the silly ones, I like the clever ones, and I really like rude or dark ones.

I don't tell stories, or talk about me, or talk to the audience, or preach politics or any of that stuff. Not interested in all that, just in how many times I can make them laugh during my time on stage.

Q: Do you enjoy providing risky and dangerous jokes?
A: I love dodgy jokes. I write jokes of all types but these are invariably the ones that get the biggest laughs so they are the ones that stay in my set.

Occasionally I misjudge it and go too far for a given crowd, but generally they forgive you as long as it's obvious you don't mean any harm and are just messing around.

Q: Have you ever regretted saying a joke?

A: Once at a gig I was talking to a girl in a hen party on the front row. They were all in fancy dress. She had an eye patch and thick 'arr me hearties' accent. I asked if she had come as a pirate. She hadn't. She wasn't even in fancy dress. She was just from Bristol and only had one eye. Oops.

Q: What are your audience reactions generally like?

A: Generally pretty good, well I keep getting booked back at places so that's a good sign.

Q: Any unusual reactions?

A: Weirdest one? Once at Download festival I was playing to about 2000 people in a huge tent. A guy right at the front screaming at me the whole way through that I had stolen my entire set from someone he had seen on the Comedy Store programme on Comedy Central. What was annoying about this was a) you can't respond because you'll lose the 2000 people in the tent who can't hear him and b) it wasn't the Comedy Store programme he saw jokes on, it was Comedy Blue, and the person doing them was me. He just hadn't recognised me.

At a biker rally in a tent one afternoon last year I was midway through a gag when I got the biggest laugh I had ever got. A huge rolling laugh, wild applause, the audience were in fits. I was quite pleased with myself. Then I found out that just behind me was a man pissing against the outside of the tent and the sun behind him made him look like a sort of urinating puppet. A Hell's Angel Manneken Pis.

Q: What have you got planned for the future?

A: I've started writing my new Edinburgh show for 2013. I've got a couple of nice telly things lined up for later this year, but don't want to jinx them by mentioning them too soon, then getting and cancelled and looking stupid (it happens!)