DOMINIC HOLLAND

When I phoned up and said, 'Mum, I'm doing a 52-date national tour with Eddie Izzard,' she said 'That's nice, dear. How are you?'

In my career, all my most important breaks have come from Edinburgh. Winning awards, being reviewed, bagging my BBCR4 series and the chance to tour has all come from Edinburgh, which begs the question, why the hell have I left it so long to come back?

I was spectacularly average at school, while my two brothers did really well academically. But my dad never said I didn't try hard enough. He knew I did my best.

I am not a natural show-off. Some of the monster comedians are terrifyingly assured, and I don't have that, and that's held me back.

I even like the Scottish weather because, like everywhere in the U.K., you can't have great beauty without lots of rain.

A barrel of laughs should be enough, but it's not. A good review is official and endures. A bad one is like a tub of Flora. It spreads easily and lasts for the whole festival.

It's because finance is so baffling that makes being an economist such a safe option. It nestles down comfortably with psychiatry and astrology as a profession where getting it patently wrong is just not a problem - and also, rather wonderfully, seems to have no adverse affect on their professional standing whatsoever.

I had a crisis of confidence and ran away from being a standup for a while.

The garden is something I always try to get into, but it always beats me.

Seeing a full room of punters queuing for my show is always heartening.

It's not cool to be star-struck.

Because it's such a good car, I think we'll have a Multipla till the kids leave home, which is tragic because I could probably afford a really nice car!

No one likes a pushy parent, and, 'pride' being one of the seven deadly sins, I needed to tread very carefully when creating a show about my eldest son, Tom, better known as Peter Parker and even better known as Marvel's new 'Spider-Man.'

I am a professional comedian, a published novelist, and a general wit for hire.

Even though Bandos is one of the biggest islands in the Maldives, it only takes 20 minutes to walk round. All it has are some chalets and a little harbour centre with three restaurants and a bar. The food is magnificent.

Edinburgh is a world city, visited throughout the year for its beauty and history, but in August, it is the City of Hope. There is something very exciting and romantic about performers of all shapes and sizes, honing their stuff for the biggest arts festival in the world.

All kids should vote - it gives them the opportunity to whinge afterwards because you can't complain if you haven't voted.

I've written 'Eclipsed' as a funny story. It is completely bonkers.

I must say that I am rather partial to funny dog videos.

I'm a confident person next to the guy in the street, but if you go into the showbiz world, it seems the guys who are most successful are the most confident, and I don't think I fit into that category.

How I've fed my kids over the years is by doing stand-up comedy in clubs.

My Fiat Multipla is bright green - it looks like a frog. I look like a monkey, so between the two of us, we are a hideous prospect. It's the ugliest car on the road but the most practical, and I would live and die by it.

I always think stand-up is the most brutal environment for a comedian.

Making people laugh is the only thing I've ever done naturally.

Growing up, I was always enthralled by Ronnie Barker. He made my dad howl with laughter, which always intrigued me, and he had the rare gift of being as good a performer as he was a writer.