The soft, contemplative Irish voice on the other end of the phone seemed miles away from the gag-pulling funnyman I had expected.

This was not the voice or words of a Norman Wisdom-style slapstick comic but a literary and thoughtful man who takes stand-up very seriously.

"I see stand-up comedy as an art as opposed to a bloke who just gets up and tells lots of jokes," explains Tommy.

The award-winning comedian is perhaps best known for hosting several series of The Stand Up Show on BBC1.

He also put in a memorable performance as the crying priest in the Channel 4 hit comedy Father Ted.

He is on a UK tour with his new show, Tell Me A Story, specialising in rambling anecdotes about childhood, relationships and the Irish/English divide.

Described as having the ability to crystallize comic thoughts into the perfect phrase, a tendency to elaborate analogies and an academic habit of playing with words, this is a literary, erudite figure who attacks comedy with intelligence.

His career really hit the big time when he won the ultimate accolade in stand-up comedy, the Perrier Award, shortly followed by a British Comedy Award for Best Stand Up.

"I started doing stand-up in 1996 and I won the Perrier in 1998 and then I got confused for while.

"When I started it was an obvious goal and then when I won it after two years I didn't know what I wanted for a while," he says.

"I had a period of just general debauchery and confusion.

"But now I'm back and I'm healthy and I'm drugged up on myself."

His return to Brighton reminds him of his last difficult visit.

"The last time I was here there was a piece of material which I was trying to get right, an improvised jazz solo which I knew had something in it but I just hadn't really landed at the time.

"Each night was going up and just searching, doing it over and over again.

"This woman passed me by and said 'Oh, for God's sake hurry up!'. It was the last heckle that threw me.

"I'm hoping she's back now because I've got the video and I can say 'there, that's what it ended up like' and show her what I did."

The show starts at 8pm, tickets are £10/£8.

Call 01273 647100 for further information.