"I’m not one of those guys who shot to fame. I’m like some old donkey working its way up the Andes.”

Sean Lock is in St Albans considering his place in the comedy universe, as he prepares to take his show Purple Van Man on the second leg of its national tour.

“I don’t know what else I would do,” he says. “I wish I had more special skills.

“I can speak a bit of French, I can run for about 45 minutes before I get fed up with it, I can swim – I don’t do anything to extremes.

“I’m a good drunk – I’m always upbeat, which isn’t a bad skill to have. I should have it on my gravestone: ‘He was a good drunk – he always got his round in’.”

His latest show is ostensibly based around the notion of the white van man – The Sun’s shorthand for what the working man on the street thinks.

“I don’t think the white van man exists,” says Lock. “I find it patronising that anyone who does a menial job is supposed to think exactly the same about everything.

“The Sun is written by Oxbridge graduates who guess what ordinary people think about. If they were to canvas my opinion, I reckon I would drive a purple van.”

Lock is currently touring the UK in a VW Campervan – not to make a point but because it provides space to have a nap on the road and an impromptu dressing room at smaller venues.

“I can use it for family holidays,” admits the stand-up, who moved to Lewes from London last year.

He doesn’t like talking about his private life, describing the person onstage as a version of himself.

“I have never thought about writing a book about myself,” he says. “I don’t think it would be very interesting.”

Instead Lock, who famously opened for Newman And Baddiel at stand-up’s first 12,000-capacity arena gig in Wembley back in 1993, sees stand-up as a licence to talk about anything – and revels in it.

“As long as it’s funny and you can connect with the audience, you can talk about anything you want,” he says. “I talk about my everyday life or political subjects, it can cover all areas.

“You can have an idea on the day or night before, start thinking about it and do something the next day. “A topical thing can be all right for a couple of days. I was on tour when Thatcher died and was able to do a bit of stuff about that for a week or two.”

He is not a comic who feels the need to talk directly to members of his audience for material – although he’s happy if they want to join in.

“It’s a different show from the one I started with,” he says. “I’m constantly editing it. I did 50 dates in the spring, so it’s a pretty tight show now.”

Lock says it is the performance element of touring he looks forward to every night.

“The hard bit is being away, staying in hotels,” he says. “The show is the best bit of the day. After the show, you go back to sleep or try to find something to eat that isn’t a curry, kebab or pizza. That’s the reality of touring.

“I’ve got my tour manager with me – it’s not as wild and exciting as a rock and roll show.”

He goes out on a tour “with a poster featuring my stupid face” every three years.

“I like to take a year off, spend a year writing and then tour from theatre to theatre the next year,” he says. “To get a two-hour show together is a lot of work – I will have written about four or five hours of material that I have to bleed down.”

In between all that is regular stand-up gigs, and appearances on television panel shows including Eight Out Of Ten Cats and QI.

“There are a couple of things in the show that never made the final edit of a panel show,” he says. “While we were recording the show, I scribbled them down and those are some of the best bits in the show.

“Panel shows are fun to do. I’m very lucky to still be working at my age. I’d have thought some young buck would have knocked me off my perch by now, but they haven’t managed it yet.”

* Sean Lock is also at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre, in Carlisle Road, on Friday, November 8. Call 01323 412000.