FAME affects people in different ways. There are those who go out of their way not to be noticed – going shopping in disguise like Michael Jackson – and there are those who tip off the paparazzi and deliberately court controversy through semi-naked twerking at awards ceremonies.

David Baddiel’s first stand-up show in 15 years looks at fame in a very different way – as a day-to-day distraction he has been living with ever since The Mary Whitehouse Experience gained cult status in 1990.

Fame – Not The Musical grew from a short talk he gave as part of the touring night 5x15, which invites five speakers to talk for a quarter of an hour on a story of passion, obsession or adventure.

“I don’t talk about fame as this incredible glittering bauble,” says Baddiel. “And it’s not a tragic thing either.

“It’s my everyday experience of fame – like people approaching me in car parks offering career advice, or Andrew Lloyd Webber thinking I’m Ben Elton. It’s the constant low-level stupid stuff you get as a result of being famous.”

The show came together in a very different way to Baddiel’s former stand-up shows.

“The 5x15 show went really well – what was interesting was I didn’t write it as a comedy, but it got really big laughs,” says Baddiel. “It was like a comic essay about fame.

“When you start as a stand-up, you are so worried about the audience not laughing that you get a joke in every 30 seconds. When you move away from stand-up and start writing in longer forms, you realise you can express yourself in a different way.

“The way this show has developed it is the most laugh-filled show I have ever done, but it also includes serious and moving moments which I would never have included before because I wouldn’t have been brave enough.”

What’s more, every word in the show is true – down to the last detail.

“There are bits about my kids,” says Baddiel. “I talk about how most people would consider that intrusive and how I consider it not to be.

“I’ve never had a problem with intrusion, but I have had a problem with misrepresentation. I’m not worried about the press coming and writing about me, I’m worried about them writing lies and getting it wrong.

“Some people don’t want their private lives in public – I think that’s part and parcel of being a comedian.”

One thing that comes across with Baddiel is his insistence on his own authenticity – essentially the importance of being himself.

“On television a lot of people change – they can be a character comedian, or become a persona of themselves,” says Baddiel. “I have an obsession with being myself. I’m always very unhappy if I feel like I’m not being myself in any given situation.”

This led to problems with The Mary Whitehouse Experience’s mix of sketches and stand-up.

“Friends have told me I’m wearingly me,” he says. “I never change at all – I find it very difficult. I can’t do any funny accents, which is a handicap.”

Allied to that is the recognition factor.

“I have a very recognisible face. Frank Skinner [his co-presenter on Fantasy Football League and fellow vocalist on the number one single Three Lions] is more famous than me, but I will still be recognised because people have got the coordinates of my features – my glasses and big, beardy Jewish face.”

The contrast to that is the perception others have of him, which he obviously has no control over.

“When you first become famous it shifts how people respond to you,” he says. “It’s about realising there is another version of you out there that is not you.”

Baddiel’s career has seen him move within different comedy and writing genres – which can add to the labels being attached to him.

“I was doing rock and roll comedy for a bit, then stuff with Frank Skinner which was more cosy and about football, then writing novels and the rest of it,” he says.

“I think you shouldn’t be defined by one thing. We’re complex people with lots of different interests, but often people like to reduce you down to one thing.”

Fame – Not The Musical isn’t just about Baddiel though. He also touches on other aspects of fame culture.

“I talk about my daughter’s leaving assembly at primary school, which was kind of showbiz,” he says, adding that she went to a state school.

“It was two hours long and had songs, awards and people crying, just like the Oscars. It’s really interesting in terms of what children expect out of life – a certain level of drama and showbiz, which is not necessarily a bad thing.”

He also tackles the taboo subject of being less famous than you once were – as Gloria Swanson’s one-time movie superstar put it in Sunset Boulevard, “I am big – it’s the pictures that got small”.

“Famous people very rarely admit to being famous,” says Baddiel. “But they really don’t want to admit to being less famous. It’s one of the most interesting and most unusual parts of the show.

“I’m not doing Wembley Arena any more [with former comedy partner Rob Newman, he was the first comedy act to play the 12,000-capacity venue] but I haven’t really changed as a person. I don’t think my personality is dependent on fame.

“I wouldn’t want to be doing what I was doing 20 years ago. I remember Wembley Arena as an amazing experience but it’s not something I would want to do now.”

His interest has moved to other things. His current project is turning The Infidel – the 2010 movie he penned starring Omid Djalili as a British Muslim who discovers he was born Jewish – into a musical.

“Sacha Baron Cohen’s brother Erran has written the music for it,” he says. “He has this amazing melodic talent.

“For me, it is all different strings to my bow – it’s all stories, it’s all writing, it’s all comedy – it’s all in the same Venn diagram.

“People talk about it as if I’m doing different stuff, but it’s not like I’m going into plumbing!”