Simon King

Simon King went up third at an open mic on 8 February 2000, doesn't remember a word of his set, and walked off thinking: I need to do that again. Since August 2002 it has been his only job, and by his count he has done close to 10,000 shows.

In this conversation he talks about being an instinct-based comic who improvises and remembers rather than writing on paper, why he has never gone on stage asking how to make the audience laugh (only what he needs to say), and the advice from a famous comic that the audience is "collateral damage". He explains why his special Furious was, literally, him…