When Dave Gorman gets a chance to look back on his career, he can be mightily proud to have pretty much single-handedly created a new kind of stage comedy. Even though he’s not sure what it should be called exactly. ‘They were narrative shows which somebody else called documentary-comedy which sort of made sense as they were stories with evidence,’ says Gorman. ‘They were themed, they were concepts: that’s fine. But I don’t think I could take those shows further, because it would have to be contrived. Now that I’m a grown-up, there wouldn’t be a real-life event that would start it and it would just be like shitting on my own doorstep to do a pretend, toy version of the real thing.’

Technological advancement would also put the brakes on such high-concept gallivanting as trawling the world looking for 54 other Dave Gormans. ‘That started because someone disbelieved me that the assistant manager of East Fife was called Dave Gorman. If that happened now, you wouldn’t get on the first train up north, you’d get your phone out and say, “look, there he is”. You could plot it all out over the internet and what would be the point of that?’

The Stafford-born comic’s latest touring show, Dave Gorman’s Powerpoint Presentation, is reflective of his less roaming working methods while still retaining a playful spirit. ‘It’s a hybrid. It’s not quite that narrative thing, but it’s doing stand-up in a way that I feel I can do differently and can play with people’s heads a bit.’

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sun 23 Oct.

Maths - Dave Gorman Stand Up