
Rex Features
I've just watched the DVD...
"...well, I hope you thought it was funny, otherwise this is gonna be awkward!"
There were a lot of people heckling you this time around. How do you cope with that?
"I love it - I absolutely love it. I've got the monopoly on being funny. I'm very lucky with my audience that they've got the same sense of humour as me, so it works very nicely. Literally, it's my favourite bit of the show because if I'm doing a tour - and I do 200 dates on a tour - I've heard my jokes before, but the audience bits are all new. It's exciting because different areas bring different things. It's great fun!"
Are there any subjects you stray away from for fear of upsetting your audience too much?
"No, there's nothing. The only moral dilemma I would have - and it's never happened yet - is if I wrote a joke about something and it was really funny and it was a very taboo and I thought, 'maybe I shouldn't say that'. But if it's funny enough, then I put it in the show, as I think I've demonstrated with this show. There's nothing I haven't covered."
You seem to have a bit of an obsession with rape...
"I think there's only four or five lines about it in the show. It's funny that out of 250 jokes, four of them are about rape and they're the ones that you've remembered. I think that says more about you than it does about me! Not to apologise about anything - but those jokes are about the wordplay. 'I bought a rape alarm because I kept forgetting to rape people' isn't really a joke about rape, it's more about wordplay. But it's got the frisson of excitement that you get from doing a joke where you think, 'Am I allowed to say that?'"
Celebrities are often the butt of your jokes. Is it too soon for Michael Jackson ones?
"Too soon?! Jesus no! We did them two days afterwards on Cats."
Who do you think your biggest stand-up rivals are?
"Rivals? I don't think I've got any rivals! I think because people do big tours - this year the biggest tour is Michael McIntyre. The year before it was Lee Evans and the year before that it was Little Britain. All of those guys doing the big arena tours make it a bigger pie, because people go out and see a great comedy show and then say 'ooh, I might go and see another comedy show'. Essentially, those guys are advertising for every other comedian and every comedy club."
Is there any chance of Your Face Or Mine being revived?
"I wish it could be! I really enjoyed it and it was a teatime show, but we could have done a mainstream version later in the evening. That was so fun to do - it's what you naturally do with your mates in the pub anyway. Some old guy walks in with a stunning looking woman and you go, 'really?!'"
Have you been tuning in for X Factor this year?
"I haven't - I work Saturday nights! I've seen a couple of bits on YouTube and this might be the gayest thing you've ever heard in your life, but I was really impressed by Cheryl Cole! I really was - I thought the dancing was really good. I like Girls Aloud, but I thought it was a step up - I thought it was really, really good. It was a good bit of pop."
What else are you tuning in for?
"I f**king love House, man! This new series - the first couple of episodes - it's awesome! I watched the first two series when I was on tour in, like, four days and I was pretty convinced I was a doctor! I knew about amyloidosis and that it's never Lupus. I absolutely love it. 30 Rock is another one. Tina Fey is the girl that you think, 'Am I the only one that fancies her?' but everyone does."
Thanks Jimmy!
"Thank you so much for taking the time because you know, it does help to shift a couple of units!"
Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes is available on DVD now.



