Every morning when he gets up, comic Justin Moorhouse thanks his lucky stars that he doesn't have to put a tie on.

"Iused to work in sales, I didn't start doing comedy till I was 29, " he says.

"Sales was soul-destroying, I hated that awful corporate world full of people who all talk the same. They'd be getting really excited about working towards a bonus trip to Mexico and I'd be thinking, 'I don't want to go to Mexico with these people.' "I still get a buzz every day knowing I don't have to put a tie on. The thought of someone telling me one day that my time is up, that I've got to give up comedy and go back to my old job, is what drives me. I love doing what I do now, having done a job that I hated, I appreciate how important it is to love your work."

Going into comedy at a relatively late age gave Justin more life experience to draw on for his act.

"You see comics starting out aged 18 and they haven't really got anything to say, " he says. "I've got 15 years of a working life behind me, when I started I had a mortgage and a baby, I had a hunger to work hard and do well and that's never left me."

It's been five years since Justin won Manchester's City Life Comedian of the Year Award and now he's one of the most sought-after acts on the British and international comedy circuit. His affable, boy-next-door style and quick wit have earned him a legion of fans - chatting to him is like catching up with an old mate.

He's best known for playing Young Kenny in Peter Kay's comedy classic, Phoenix Nights. You'll no doubt remember Kenny getting his face painted at a cut-price fun day at the Phoenix - by a con man spraying children's faces with car paint - then panicking when he was unable to remove his tiger face.

"It took half-an-hour to paint on and we did the scenes over several days, so every day I had it painted on again in exactly the same way, " says Justin.

"One morning I shot some scenes and the next ones weren't due to be shot until that evening but I decided to leave the paint on, rather than sitting through yet another make-up session later on. Then I went and drove to the Trafford Centre, forgetting I'd got this tiger face! It's absolutely true, people kept staring at me and pulling their children out of the way, muttering about what I was doing out on my own when I clearly 'wasn't right'.

When I got back in my car and caught sight of myself in the mirror I could've died."

Justin is on the road with his 'Difficult Second Tour' which rolls into Bradford tonight. "I've played Bradford many times, you have my favourite name for a motorway - the M606. It's only a pen-stroke away from being the Devil's own road.

"Stand-up is my first love, I spend about a third of the time talking to the audience. None of it's scripted, although I did come up with a list of 79 things that make me angry - it goes with the territory of approaching middle-age - which I've whittled down to 20."

So what makes him angry?

"Loose Women, how rubbish is that?

One of them is always going on about how she used to be married to Chris Evans, another one goes on about how she used to be married to Shane Richie. Yeah, yeah, tell us something else. The one holding it all together thinks she's Jeremy Paxman."

His show also sees him reviving a 1970s game show (I won't spoil the surprise, but he says it gives him chance to throw in a lewd sex gag), and slides from his childhood. "It's more than just a bloke with a microphone, " he says. "I love the buzz of stand-up, people say it's terrifying but I find it easy, although when you've made a name for yourself you get more nervous because you have a reputation to maintain."

As well as presenting a weekly Manchester radio show, Justin has penned a play for BBC Radio 4 and is writing for the next series of Channel 4's Eight Out of Ten Cats.

"I'd like to do more writing, I'd love to write a sitcom but then doesn't every comedian? It's like you journalists all having a novel in you."

Will there be any more Phoenix Nights? "I'll give you an exclusive here - I don't know, " he says. "I don't think we've seen the end of Brian Potter but there's something satisfying about leaving the series behind while it's a success. I loved being in it and if I never do anything else of any worth I'll always have that to look back on."

Justin Moorhouse is at the Alhambra Studio tonight. Ring (01274) 432000.