LUCY Porter tells me she's in bed, enjoying a cup of tea and some biscuits, when I ring to talk to her. "The life support and comfort of my bed" is how she refers to it.

Taking to her bed is one way of dealing with a full schedule of press interviews to talk about her first extensive stand-up UK tour. She's performed several seasons of her sell-out show, Happiness, at the Edinburgh Festival but this marks her debut taking her stand-up around the country, including a date at Stockton Arc this month.

"I thought it was the most miserable time of the year, a bit of a bad time for me, so it would cheer me up to try and bring a bit of joy to the midwinter bleakness," she says, explaining the decision to tour.

"It's 11 years since I did my first ever gig. I've been building up my act. In Edinburgh, I've built up a bit of an audience who know what I do and like what I do. Going on tour is the natural next step."

The three-month tour follows her appearance at the HBO-sponsored Las Vegas Comedy Festival where she performed in Caesar's Palace as one of only three British acts.

As well as stand-up, she's written for TV presenters including Johnny Vaughan, Davina McCall, Liza Tarbuck, John Thomson, Adam and Joe and Griff Rhys Jones. Recently, she's been writing the voiceover for a new Anthea Turner series.

Now she's concentrating on writing for herself. The Happiness tour isn't just the material she performed in Edinburgh. "There are some old bits, some new bits, some bits where I don't know what's going to happen. Because it's my first tour, I thought I'd do some of my favourite bits," she explains.

She describes her comedy as "chatty, happy nonsense". There's some structure to the act which she reckons is about 60 per cent written and 40 per cent "that's just having a chat or doing something to keep it fresh for myself", she says.

"It's nice to do different shows on the night. Every stand-up gig should be a once in a lifetime experience. It's such a lovely thing with stand-up that you can write something in the afternoon and perform it in the evening to see if it's funny or not. In TV, you write something and have to wait to see if it's any good."

Porter began writing on TV and "after many rubbish jobs" ended up working on The Mrs Merton Show with Caroline Aherne. "I looked at people doing comedy and thought that I'd like to do that," she says.

An open mic spot in a jazz caf provided the opportunity for her debut. The comedy work continued from there, notably on the thriving Manchester scene.

Edinburgh was part of the comedy circuit, although she feels that "often you're there to sell beer - it's about getting people in to buy as much beer as possible".

Now she wants a challenge and a tour meets that objective. "Like any job, you can get to the point where you're a bit bored and have to do things that are scary," she says.

That's another reason for expanding her repertoire to include acting. She was among the dozen or so stand-up comedians who joined Christian Slater in a stage revival of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest at the Edinburgh Festival two years ago. The production was hit by the illness of American actor Slater, among other things.

"I thought, 'acting is a funny thing'," she says. "It made me realise how easy stand-up is. You're just responsible for yourself. If you mess up a gag, it's your problem and you can sort it out yourself. With acting, there's so much more that can go wrong. We had illness and all sorts of stuff going on."

Unusually for a dramatic production, audience members sometimes felt the need to join in just as they'd heckle during a stand-up show. Porter took it in good part, although admits that some actors might have been freaked out by heckling and the "quite raucous" backstage behaviour.

She'd like to do more acting because "I'm quite like a jellyfish, I'll go with the flow".

She'll be heard in April on a new BBC Radio 2 Saturday lunchtime comedy show The Powder Room, teaming her with Julia Morris and Gina Yashere. "It's sketches and stand-up and having a bit of a chat," she says.

l Lucy Porter appears at Stockton Arc on Saturday. Tickets (01642) 525199.