Patrick Monahan has an Irish dad, Iranian mother and a Teesside sense of humour. Viv Hardwick talks to him about his Edinburgh show, TV work and his love for the North-East.

TO stand-up comic Patrick Monahan home is a caravan park near Middlesbrough where his parents live and he goes to recharge his batteries between TV work and touring not one but two shows at the same time.

And this product of an Irish father and Iranian mother, who had to flee Iran with his family when the Shah fell from power, admits that he needed a little time-out when he realised that having a show called The Ladyboys Of Iran might be a little controversial.

“The adult show is actually called I Walked, I Dance and I’ran but I was going to use the other title because I thought it was quite funny. Then I spoke to a couple of comics about using the fact that the biggest number of sex changes in the world take place in Iran because homosexuality is banned. They thought it might be a little bit dodgy and if I went back to Iran the authorities might not like it.

I don’t think they’ll stone me to death over the new title” he explains.

Monahan agrees that Iran is probably one of hardest countries to be funny about. “I do get a lot of Iranians who live in Britain turning up and they love any mention of Iran. And when you say anything funny about Iran they are always the first to laugh. But I couldn’t do the show in Iran. The authorities would view as if I’d put on a hen party with a stripper in a church. The whole point of my comedy is that I want people to be entertained and not be someone who bangs on about the credit crunch and cut-backs. I want people to let their hair down,” he explains.

Next Thursday, Monahan, who is 34 tomorrow (June 23), is putting on shows for family audiences and adults at Darlington Arts Centre and then heading off for Robin Hood’s Bay before trying out his Edinburgh acts at Live Theatre, Newcastle, on August 1.

“I was a bit worried about being booked for Robin Hood’s Bay because I thought it was a seaside destination. The things is I grew up about 20 miles from there and I’d never been there in my life, but I’m told it’s really beautiful,” he says.

Monahan reckons he doesn’t give a monkeys about how far he travels and once joked he had 47 wives in 32 countries, but the non-swearing comic best-known for his links with TV’s The Paul O’Grady Show jokes that on tour his family is a suitcase. “I would love to settle down with a wife and kids but there’s no point doing that for a few years because I’d only be home for a few nights at a time,” he says.

His dad met his mum out in Iran when a big Irish contingent went out to work in the Seventies. “My dad said it was something like 20,000 to 30,000 working on construction and my mum was working in a bank at the time, because this was a time when women had jobs. My sister, my brother and me were born out there but then came the revolution and after that Iraq took the opportunity to attack and we were living right on the border so everyone like us just left. There was no point going back to Ireland, so my dad got a job with British Steel in Middlesbrough.

“It’s quite funny in our house because out of everyone I’ve got the strongest North-East accent.

When people came around our house it was like the United Nations. When I first started stand-up I didn’t used to mention my background, then I was advised it was an asset because I look like a guy from the Pizza Shop but I have a Teesside accent with a name that sounds like I’m from Ireland. People used to be baffled,” says Monahan who identifies with better-known Iranian comic Omid Djalili.

“Look at Omid who went to America and when he blew it was amazing for Iran and people love us talking about the culture,” he explains.

His work with Paul O’Grady started when he was invited to be the popular entertainer’s warm-up man. “It was just a lucky break and he is the kind of guy who is genuinely interested in how your other gigs are going. And what a lovely fellah. I’d grown up watching him on TV and a lot of people would be nervous about coming in to do a show in front of millions of people and even with a live show he’d just walk in and make it look like he was having a chat,” Monahan says.

But home is still Middlesbrough. “Any time I’m near I always go back home and with my kind of diary, two or three times a month I’ll be near the North-East and go back and when I write a new show I will go back and stay at home. So without the North-East I’d be scuppered, it’s my main inspiration now,” says Monahan, who ended up doing the children’s show because so many younger fans wanted to see his perfromances in Edinburgh last year.

■ Patrick Monahan, Darlington Arts Centre, today, 2.30pm (£5) and 8pm (£12). Box Office: 01325-486-555 darlingtonarts.co.uk. Then tomorrow: Robin Hoods Bay, The Swell Cinema (children and adult performances). Sunday: Live Theatre, Newcastle. 0191- 232-1232 live.org.uk