Chris Addison: "Stand-up is where it all comes from"

In the 1996 movie Multiplicity, Michael Keaton clones himself in an attempt to manage his busy schedule. It’s tempting to think that the technology described in that movie has been perfected by the ubiquitous comic and actor, Chris Addison.

This year alone has seen him become a regular panellist on Mock The Week as well as launching his own show, E4’s Show and Tell. We won’t mention the Direct Line insurance ads but he’s recently launched a comedy DVD and, just to make sure he’s never at a loose end, has emarked on a UK comedy tour.

Where on earth does he get the time?

"I have the same amount of time as everyone else," he laughs. "I haven't had much downtime this year.I'd quite like to buy some extra time, maybe get to do some more relaxing stuff. But things like Show & Tell are recorded in a block and broadcast over the year, so I look more impressively busy than I am."

He's excited about the upcoming tour and talks about the immediacy of performing comedy to a live audience, plus the sense of ownership over the performace. "With stand-up, it's all yours, you're the final arbiter of what people see. But when you're doing radio or telly, it goes through layers of people before it gets out. When you come to those things from stand-up and realise how much control you have to give up, it's quite a culture shock."

Does he still consider himself a stand-up, rather than TV personality? "I'm still a stand-up, yes. I've been a stand-up for 16 years and I still love doing it. It's great to be recognised as an actor, but stand-up is where it all comes from."

Addison is also part of that strange and thriving British instution: comedy tweeters. @mrchrisaddison and his chums like to provide royal commentaries of TV events such as Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor, and things like the Royal Wedding would have been unbearable without an accompaniment of his zingers. Addison says Twitter is like "messing about in a pub with a few hundred of your funniest mates".

"Twitter can enhance so many things. Question Time and X Factor are great, and Eurovision is a night of unbridled joy. People talk about social networking as if it's somehow atomising society, but I've made friends on Twitter that I wouldn't have met in real life. Plus, watching X Factor without Twitter would be like hammering nails in your head."

Before he goes, I try to get Addison to give us some insider info on the The Skinny comedy section's favourite TV show, The Thick Of It, but he reveals nothing except that the new series is filming next year. He's a charming and courteous interviewee. So, for the sake of balance, enjoy these clips of him as loveable bastard Ollie Reeder: