I WAS relieved to discover that comic Dylan Moran wasn’t at all “prickly” to interview, as I’d been warned.

In fact, he was quite amiable and self-effacing. Admittedly he was a little distracted, having literally just stepped off his tour bus in deepest darkest Scotland for a series of warm-up gigs.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” he said of the epic 41-date tour he’s tackling throughout October and November.

“I’m very keen to do a good show and get it out there.

"At the moment I’m up here on my Scottish jaunt doing warm-up gigs and trying out all the crazy stuff that’s been in my head for months.

"I’m trying it all out to see how it goes and I’ll edit the show as I go along.

"I’ll throw out what doesn’t really work and do more of the stuff that does.”

So what will the audience be hearing about during this brand new show, entitled “What It Is”?

“What do I talk about? Life and death... and crisps,” Moran deadpanned.

“I suppose I a little bit try to talk about shared experience, you know.”

But on being asked about his label as heart-throb Moran became a little guarded.

“I don’t go around thinking about myself as a heart-throb.

"I don’t pay it much notice to be honest with you.”

Moran is most famous for the TV sitcom Black Books, which he co-wrote and starred in, as well as his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fat Boy Run.

But stand-up is his first love. He reportedly fell into it at the age of 20 after watching Ardal O’Hanlon and other comedians perform at Dublin’s Comedy Cellar, a small 90-seater club with no microphone.

Moran’s talent was acknowledged in 1993 when he won the So You Think You’re Funny award at the Edinburgh Festival.

He went on to become the youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 at the Edinburgh Festival, at age 24.

In 1998 Moran won his first major television role playing Ian Lyons in the BBC 2 sitcom How Do You Want Me? He went on to appear in a small role in the 1999 movie Notting Hill as Rufus the thief.

In 2000, Black Books was first aired on Channel 4.

The sitcom about a miserable, unsociable, drunken book shop owner, Bernard Black, was the original idea of Moran.

The second series was televised in 2002 and the third, which aired in 2004, was greeted with great enthusiasm by critics and fans alike.

But Moran stopped short of a fourth series despite the obvious financial incentives.

“We were pleased with what we did up to then — I thought it was funny — and I didn’t want to mess it up by doing something half-hearted,” he explained.

“We enjoyed ourselves. We thought we were doing a good show.

"We made each other laugh anyway, and we didn’t want to do what a lot of people do and make another series just because people wanted one.

"We wanted to quit while we were ahead, basically.

"The financial side wasn’t a great pull to be honest.

"I believed in myself enough to know that I’d get another gig.”

And he was right. Later the same year Moran appeared in his first major film role, playing David in the comedy Shaun of the Dead, a snide adversary vying for the affections of Shaun’s (Pegg) girlfriend, and in 2007 was cast in comedy film Run, Fat Boy, Run, also starring Pegg.

There’s no chance of Moran ditching stand-up to focus on making it in the movies, though.

“I’m grateful that I’ve been able to turn my hand to different things, but I don’t prefer one to another,” he said.

“By the time you’ve finished filming something, the thought of going on the road to tour is very attractive and vice versa, so it all seems to even out.”

But he does admit life on the road has its down sides.

“The worse thing is the food,” he said. “When you’ve been living on garage food for five days, eating nothing but pasties and pre-packed sandwiches it’s pretty bad.

"A classic tour breakfast is peanuts and chocolate because that’s all you can get from the mini bar.

“But when it all comes together on stage it’s great.

"You’re in a room with a bunch of people and they’re all laughing at something which started as an idea in your head. You can’t beat that.”

l See Dylan Moran at King George’s Hall, Blackburn, Saturday, October 4. For tickets call 0844 847 1664. He then appears at the Palace, Manchester on Tuesday, October 14, Saturday, October 18 and Friday, February 13.