“I’ve had three years off bringing up my two kids,” says three-time Perrier-nominee Dan Antopolski, explaining his long absence from the Edinburgh Festival. “Now I’ve got lots of complaints to make about them and I need an audience to complain to. So I’m going back.”

He’ll be taking his family up to the festival, where his girlfriend will be performing a children’s show, and is finding the the pressures of honing a new routine invigorating. Penetrating Gaze is more structured and less surreal than previous works, with Antopolski reining in his tendency to improvise. “I think it’s a straighter kind of stand-up. But it’s always nice to have a chat, because it personalises a gig,” he explains. “If you have a real conversation with a real human being, it’s never going to happen again, so I do enjoy that a lot.”

Past shows have seen him interacting with video projections of Frank Skinner and The Fast Show’s Simon Day or wearing a “power helmet” which could read people’s thoughts. While he is largely eschewing the gadgets and props this time around, he will be incorporating some raps into his set.

“I’ve written raps about important subjects such as wanting a sandwich, stuff like that,” he says. “So it’s pretty hard-hitting, political stuff.”

Winner of the BBC New Comedy Award in 1998, Antopolski’s unique, intelligent material, characterised by a rambling delivery and punchlines which take a second or two to register, has always had a polarising effect on critics.

“Every year there are some five-star and some zero-star reviews,” he admits. “Certainly some people don’t get it and of those who do get it, some people don’t like it.

“Daniel Kitson, who’s much better than me, for the first few years he’d always get people saying, ‘What’s this?’ I think you can be quite liked by everybody or loved by some people and that’s what I aspire to – to be a few people’s favourite.”

Admirers of Antopolski include Catherine Tate, with whom he co-starred in a 2000 Edinburgh sketch show; The Mighty Boosh, who gave him a cameo role in an early stage production; and Flight Of The Conchords, in whose Radio 2 series he appeared.

During his self-imposed absence from the stand-up circuit he has starred in the BBC sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive, alongside Shaun Of The Dead’s Nick Frost, and had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role as Jesus in The Da Vinci Code.

“I look like Jesus and they needed someone who looked like Jesus, so that was an easy casting. There was a tiny dream sequence I was in for half-a-second. My own brother went to watch it and even he couldn’t see me.”

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