In1988 Sue Perkins walked onto a stage for a bet to perform her first stand-up routine.

She was interrupted by a hunched figure in a cerise boiler suit, a girl called Mel Giedroyc.

Mel and Sue became one of the country's top female comedy double acts, launched on daytime cookery show Light Lunch.

Next week Sue brings her first onewoman show to City Varieties. "It sounds cheesy but it's my favourite venue in the country, " she says. "All that history, lovely. Mel and I played there - I hope I do as well on my own."

Sue, 36, has become a TV and radio star in her own right, appearing on shows like Radio 2's It's Been A Bad Week, Radio 4's Just A Minute and the Sony award-winning 99p Challenge. But she admits solo stand-up was initially "terrifying".

"It was something I had to do, though. I was having an easy ride, coasting along taking TV money - which is great and pays the mortgage - but I needed the fear of standup. There was the scary prospect of being without Mel, I kept thinking, 'Nobody will come, she's more loveable, I'm the narky one in the specs, ' but lots of people came and it's been great. I'm able to present a rounded version of myself - although my personality is a work in progress.

"Mel and I have yearned to do separate things but we'll certainly work together again. It helped that we were mates first. She sent me a very formal letter inviting me to go into comedy partnership with her."

Would they do a Catherine Tate-style sketch show route, bringing to life characters they devised for a pilot in the Nineties?

"Maybe, we had great fun with that.

So many things to do, but I tend to potter a lot these days." She pauses to greet one of her dogs entering the room. "And walking my dogs on Hampstead Heath. God I'm sick of this biting wind, it's hell for us dogwalkers."

Her show covers everything from a tour around Britain's first online Romany community - "I once got complaints from gipsies, all on email. It didn't match my image of a painted wooden caravan" - to why wearing spectacles is not enough to become Spectacle Wearer of the Year. "I was robbed of that title."

Sue finds herself working mainly with men on the comedy circuit.

"There's a shortage of female comics, especially those who've made a name on TV and radio. I rarely share the bill with other women, we're used sparingly.

"I only met Linda Smith once and when she died I was saddened partly because I'd never worked with her."

Even on shows like Have I Got News for You, which Sue has appeared on, there tends to be just one token female, if any.

"And often she's not even a comic, " says Sue. "That's just the way it is, I'm not complaining. The men I work with are total gentlemen, I've never experienced any prejudice, either as a woman or because of my sexuality."

Her show draws a little on her experience as a gay woman.

"They're just observations from my perspective, I don't make an issue of it but I'm comfortable talking about it.

"I play to diverse crowds. People are very accepting of me - I'm quite normal really!"