THE one South Shields woman you're likely to see pacing the streets with a notebook and pen is stand-up Sarah Millican, who will be sourcing more material for her sell-out shows while touring with current show Outsider.

Millican is renowned for her work ethic, something she attributes to her father, and regularly makes notes about everyday events and conversations – even the most intimate ones with husband, Gary Delaney.

“If something happens between us I get to use it. If something funny happens when we're being intimate, he's the first one to go, 'Write that down before you forget.' He comes to my shows and laughs the loudest when it's stuff about him," she explains.

“I don't stop in the middle of it and make notes, I do wait until afterwards. But he's the one who makes me harness stuff as it happens. That's where my material comes from, out of conversations or experiences.”

Despite being one of the most sought-after comedians – she's just announced two more nights at Newcastle's Tyne Theatre in July, because the previous six have all sold out – Millican tries to retain an air of everyone's favourite auntie.

“I love being funny about everyday life and talking about the things people think but don't like to talk about in public. I could be sitting beside you in the audience. So many people go, 'Oh my God, my auntie's just like you' or, 'My neighbour's just like you,' and I take that as a real compliment. I'm a kind of Everywoman – I don't look like a star or behave like a star, so there's not that big chasm or moat between us.

“I'm talking about things that have happened to me, and it's stuff they can relate to, because I'm not Elton John – although I did once buy a seven-pack of socks and wear a new pair of socks every day for a week and felt a little bit like Elton John. I can see why he does it, because they just slide on.”

Since winning the 2008 if.comedy Best Newcomer Award for her debut solo show, Sarah Millican’s Not Nice, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she has become a household name.

Millican gained six nominations for the British Comedy Awards, who crowned her The People’s Choice: Queen of Comedy in 2011. There were Bafta nominations in 2013 and 2014 for her work on her self-titled TV programme which ran for three series.

The comic appeared at The Royal Variety Performance and her debut DVD, Chatterbox Live, became the biggest selling stand-up DVD by a female comedian of all time. She has notched up countless appearances on top comedy shows including QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You and Live at the Appolo. Sarah is also a regular on TV chatshows such as Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross and Alan Carr.

Growing up with hardship in the North-East, Sarah cites her dad’s humour and work ethic as major influences in her life.

"Laziness was the one thing he couldn't tolerate in people. I think that's where I get my positivity from, and my drive. He always used to say, 'There's no such thing as can't. The only thing you can't do is stick your bum out the window, run downstairs and throw stones at it. You can do anything apart from that.

"Maybe one day I'll prove I can do that, too. If I was really quick. Or if my arse was big enough," she jokes.

Asked about coping with fame, Millican says: “It's not enough for something to be popular. It has to be good. When you look out at somewhere like Hammersmith Apollo and all those people have come just to see you on that night, it's overwhelming. You can't rest on your laurels. This tour's got to be better than the last one because I want people to come to the next one”

Famously, the starting point for Millican's march to the top of the comedy world was her divorce. She was 22 when she wed and her marriage lasted seven years.

“I had days when I felt like I could do nothing and then days when I felt like I could do anything. On one of the latter days, I attended a workshop for people who had written but never performed. As part of that workshop, I read a monologue to an audience. Six months later, I decided to try stand-up.

“I did a five-minute slot in a pub in Newcastle and for two-and-a- half minutes no one laughed. Then I did the divorce bit and the room went from silence to a massive laugh, and I thought, 'Right, that's going at the beginning'."

She’s often asked why there are not more women comics: “The reason there's not so many women doing it is probably the lifestyle. It's quite solitary, there's a lot of driving around, at the beginning staying in not very nice hotels or on sofas. Maybe it's not a life women are as suited to. Some women do it and have families and I'm in awe of them.”

* Friday, July 29 and Saturday, July 30, are the extra dates for Outsider at the Tyne Theatre and go on sale from Friday, November 27. Box Office: 0844-2491-1000 or tynetheatreandoperahouse.uk.

* May 25 to 28, July 22 to 23 have all sold out at the Tyne Theatre.

* Another sold-out date is: Wednesday, December 9, Middlesbrough Town Hall.

*There are limited seats available for: September 2 and 3, York Barbican