1 Born in Beirut in 1968, Joly has claimed to have attended the same school as some kid called bin Laden. He subsequently worked for the European Commission, as a researcher and producer on political programmes across the main UK channels before getting work for the Mark Thomas Comedy Product on Channel 4.

2 Although it was the C4 series of Trigger Happy TV which cemented his reputation as a prankster extraordinaire, Joly's larking around with massive mobile phones and getting-someone-in-a-cat-costume-chasing-someone-else-in-a-mouse-outfit first arrived on the Paramount Comedy Channel where short bits of material would be slotted in between established shows such as Frasier and Friends.

3 A big fan of reality shows, he headed off to Oz for last year's I'm a Celebrity … which also featured Britt Ekland, Shaun Ryder and Gillian McKeith, and was a paparazzo for a fake magazine in Deadline. While on that job, he recalls having 'bother' with Lily Allen, Pete Doherty and Pierce Brosnan.

4 Ever the japester, Joly has been popping onto celeb pages on Wikipedia to do some judicious editing. He has fiddled with Jack Dee and Michael Winner's entries and believes someone may have taken revenge by suggesting on Joly's page that he is divorced when in fact he remains happily married to Stacey.

5 Later this year he's releasing an e-book entitled Scary Monsters and Super Creeps in which he indulges his love of travel to try and track down classic beasts such as Nessie, Bigfoot and the Yeti.

Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 14 May.