A Giggle with…JONATHAN GUNNING

Who was the first comedian to tickle your funny bone?

Dave Allen. It was while I was doing a reading in Mass and one of his ponderings crept into my subconscious and made me giggle. The congregation were insulted but the priest loved it and later added it to the reading. The new improved version can be heard around mid-August.

The last gag you wanted to nick?

You must mean the last time I coveted a neighbour's goods. What was it? I can only tell that to a priest, for fuck's sake!

Best heckle & retort?

During one gig I was doing a woman shouted up "You're ugly!", so I married her. Now she irons my underpants every evening.

Most agonising death on stage?

Sadly, it was at the Comedy Cellar, a few months back. I was completely shit, but by God I've learned from it and I'm a better man now because of it . . . arr!

Finest hour on stage?

That would probably be the seven minute hour I did in the semi-finals of So You Think You're Funny? at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival.

Funniest person alive?

Eddie Izzard, or Woody Allen . . . or maybe Mat Guillane in Galway. Actually, any member of The Flying Pigs. Tommy Tiernan is a former member of The Flying Pigs, so any of those guys really.

Bernard Manning. Discuss.

He's a comedian who takes his humour from his surroundings, so clearly his dad's a wap, his mother's a nigger and his sister's a dyke . . . what can you do? (Just my little joke, by the way.)

The Best Sitcom In The World . . . Ever!

The Simpsons. I don't really watch very much TV, but I find that if you watch the news on RTE and shout the word "knickers" at the end of each sentence it makes it very funny.

• Jonathan Gunning will be performing in an all Irish extravaganza at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival