Lenny Henry owns up to loving every minute of being on tour as he returns to Newcastle. Viv Hardwick reports.

"NOTHING beats the buzz of live comedy. It gives you the instant feedback of approval. Comedians crave that - it's the 'mummy, look at me' syndrome. There's nothing like a wave of laughter to affirm you. For a comedian, the audience is the ultimate test of whether or not the material is working. I just love live comedy," says the comic booked to perform at Newcastle's Theatre Royal on Sunday.

So why is he so passionate about stand-up? "When you're on stage, you have this wonderfully exciting knowledge that you've got something up your sleeve that will have the audience on the floor.

"They don't know it yet, but in the next minute you're going to say something that will make them squirt milk out of their nose. In that weird part of the brain where cabbies store The Knowledge, comedians keep stuff that will make audiences behave in a very strange way and start falling over."

The 48-year-old has been a major league funny man since he won New Faces as a 16-year-old in 1975 and reckons that the communal feeling of a darkened auditorium encourages audiences to enjoy themselves. "Eric Idle has called the experience of laughing at live comedy 'barking at the darkness.' I like that. People laugh with such abandon in a theatre because they feel protected by the darkness," he explains

"When directors suggest putting the lights on the audience, I always say, 'don't!' People never laugh as much when the lights are on. Like sex, comedy is better with the lights off - with a tiny torch, a pot of peanut butter and a meerkat."

Henry has been married to fellow comedian Dawn French for the past 22 years and is the proud father of daughter Billie, and says: "your happiness is bound up in your family and friends and what you do. This is what I do - and it couldn't make me happier."

His show is called Where You From? and jokes that writing fresh material "really puts a firework up yourbackside". The straight actor, writer, singer and impressionist will use the tour as part of a documentary series, called Lenny's Britain, he has been filming for BBC1.

His quest is to construct a comedy map of the UK, asking the questions: Is Birmingham funnier than Glasgow and are more laughs to be had in London than in Belfast?

Along the way, he has tried out various jobs to see how work affects our humour. He says: "I worked on the South Pier at Blackpool, selling donuts and operating the Waltzer 2 'when the light flickers, hold onto your knickers' A lot of people will be saying these are the jobs that I should be doing."

Henry laboured in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow; a Blackpool hotel, in a Dudley nursing home called Henry Court - "that's named after my mum. I spent a day there with the elderly residents, chopping vegetables and getting the old people to their prayer meetings and embroidery classes. It was a very joyful and moving experience. I also witnessed a birth - at the Russell's Hall Hospital, not the nursing home.

"The idea was to meet people in the way that John Peel used to meet them on Home Truths. So often, they tell you something really personal with a very compassionate sense of humour," says the comic who claims he now knows "anyone who does a crap job, that no one else wants to do, rocks".

The downside was having to go caravanning.

He says: "I promise you, I'll never spend a night in a caravan again.They're so tiny. You could only exist in a caravan if you were a Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz."

That apart, the comic has found touring the country for Lenny's Britain a memorable ride - and he is eager to tell everyone about it. "On the TV show, we've had a joke booth, where people of whatever colour and creed can go and tell us their favourite gags. One said, 'why does a duck have webbed feet? For stamping out fires. Why do elephants have big feet? For stamping out burning ducks.' Isn't that great? We've got such a brilliant, innate sense of humour.

"The whole experience of collecting material for Where You From? has been terrific. It's been like the country reciprocating. I've been working in comedy for 32 years - and now the British public is paying me back. They're telling me jokes and making me laugh. I'm loving it."

* Lenny Henry, Where You From? Newcastle Theatre Royal on Sunday. Box Office: 0870-905-5060.