No matter what he does, strange things keep happening to Phil Nichol.

His latest show, Hiro Worship, was sparked by an ill-advised act of generosity towards a fan who turned up to one of his gigs.

"Hiro is this Japanese guy I befriended after a gig at London's 100 Club," says the Canadian funnyman. "He'd been sitting in the front row during the show and came backstage to see me afterwards, but then he started crying.

"I had to go off and do another gig so I didn't know what to do. He didn't speak much English but I managed to find out that he had arrived in London that day and he didn't know where he was staying. So I gave him my name and number and invited him to stay with me for a couple of days."

This simple act of kindness had explosive results.

"Five weeks later, Hiro was still in my house. My flatmates had gone off me a bit, my girlfriend wasn't talking to me and I was finding it all extremely funny. It was like having a Japanese pet, a Siamese cat or something."

But it all ended messily when Phil realised he had to ask his guest to leave.

"What we originally thought was a culture difference and a language barrier turned out to be mental illness and a personality disorder," he confesses, giggling mischievously.

It's not the first time the madcap comic has attracted trouble. He once ran naked down the street chasing bigots in Amsterdam, an episode which sparked his award-winning Naked Racist show. This won him a blue riband award at the Edinburgh fringe festival, and featured sex, conflict, magic mushrooms, rock music, a snail called Martin, more mushrooms, violence, racists, war mongers, and the Amsterdam police.

It culminated in Nichol stripping naked and running into the audience to protest against the war - an obscure nod to a naked protest by a Christian sect, the Doukhobors, against the Tsar in late 19th Century Russia.

Then there was the year when he broke his penis having sex, got his nose broken by a thug on the Tube, got dumped and lost his life savings, the unhappy events that inspired his show, Things I Like I Lick. Dedicated to all things likeable or indeed, lickable, to bring him out of his darkest hour, he extolled the virtues of everything from the song My Darling Clementine to John Travolta's legs - as well as licking a few of the brave front rowers at his gigs.

Nearly Gay was another show sparked by an unhappy event where Phil was mistaken for being homophobic for his famous Gay Eskimo song.

"I was really upset with the allegation," he says earnestly. "So I did my Nearly Gay show to prove I'm as gay as you can get without being gay."

In Hiro Worship, the if.comeddies awardwinner returns to share more free-wheeling confessional nuggets about the difference between hero worshippers and stalkers.

"There's a fine line between a die-hard fan and a stalker, and that fine line ends when they've found where you live and they're naked in your kitchen holding your favourite breakfast, saying, I've made you pancakes, dear.

"It's good to have your heroes, but when you know where your heroes live and you follow them home, that's freaky."