COMEDIAN John Robins brings his Incredible Scenes tour to a climax at Newport Riverfront this Thursday. The show, which was written by the Bristol based comic, has been described by reviewers as both hilarious and as brilliant craftsmanship.

“It’s been excellent,” John says of the tour which premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and has since taken him across numerous venues in England and Wales. Inspired by the positive feedback, he has already started putting together his next show.

“It’s quite a strange experience performing last year’s showwhen next year’s showis starting to form in your head” he says. “And it’s quite difficult to stop putting the new stuff into the old show.”

I wonder how John manages to keep his act fresh, particularly as he’s been performing it for nearly a year.

“I think the way I approach writing helps,” he explains. “I never fully write everything out in long hand. I want to make it as if I’m telling the story for the first time or telling the anecdote to the audience rather than I’m memorising stuff. Often my set list for a showwill be like bullet points and the approach is always like when your mate turns up at the pub and you say ‘Oh tell him that thing you were telling me’ and then they tell you a story.”

John combines storytelling with audience interaction. “I quite like going off script,” he says. “But it’s not mean in any way. I’m not a fan of being mean in comedy, and I tend to be the butt of all the jokes.”

John evidently draws his inspiration from real life scenarios as he recently suffered a case of mistaken identity at a venue.

“I turned up and they thought I was in Ginger Bakers band,” he laughs. “He was on in the big room and I was on in the room upstairs, I went in through the back door and they ushered me towards the band which was rehearsing. I didn’t knowwhat to say because they had my posters up and I assumed they’d recognise me but obviously they didn’t.”

● Catch John Robins’ Incredible Scenes tour at Newport Riverfront on March 7. Contact box office on 01633 656757 or visit newport.gov.uk/theRiverfront