With his "just woke up" hair and face full of stubble, comic Jason Byrne looks like a mad Irishman. And then he opens his mouth and confirms it. We spoke to the award-winning comedian.

COMIC Jason Byrne is on his way back from a trip to the DIY store to buy paint for his brand new living room when I call for our interview.

And it's fair to say the experience has left him in a flap.

"Years ago you just went out and bought white paint," he bellowed into the hands-free kit in his booming Dublin accent.

"You didn't have to bother with all this "slipper satin" and "antique cream" rubbish. Bloody hell, what's happening to us?"

Having just moved into a new home, he made a New Year's resolution -- never to move house again.

"It feels like somebody's died. No, it's worse than that. This is the last time I ever move before I die. They're going to have to carry me out of this house in a coffin.

"I've got builders in and they're all idiots. They don't give a monkeys, even if I'm really horrible to them. Mind you they probably think I'm a nightmare too. I follow them round going 'why are you doing that? It's rubbish'."

Hopefully Jason will have calmed down a bit when he brings his award-winning Edinburgh show "Shy Pigs with Wigs Hidden in Twigs" to The Lowry, Salford, next Friday, January 25 (note: the show has nothing to do with pigs, wigs or twigs, he just has an obsession with animal themes).

The tour will be Jason's biggest ever, following huge success at last year's Edinburgh Festival.

"I'm touring with the same show I did in Edinburgh, but by the time I've worked my way around England it'll probably be a whole new show," said Jason.

"I'm always adding stuff that I think of. If you think of something brilliant you can't go 'I'm not going to put that in'.

"It's not like a novel, it's never finished. If something brilliant happens I have to say it that night.

"A lot of my stuff is very loose anyway and I get the audience involved."

He gets the audience so involved, in fact, that one of his most popular pieces involves getting audience members to steal bits of the venue during the interval.

"I try to get people in the audience to do something they've never done before," he explained.

"So in the break I tell them they have to rob something. It could be someone's cigarettes or the ice bucket, anything.

"In Kilburn I did it and when I came back to do the second half they'd cleared the stage: the microphone stand, the table, everything was gone.

"It's a bit of a laugh and the audience like getting involved.

"It breaks the ice a bit and gets them excited.

"One man the last time I did it was incredibly proud at having stolen the ice shovel from the bar and slipping it into his wife's pocket without her knowing."

See Jason Byrne at The Lowry, Salford Quays, on Friday, January 25. For tickets call box office on 0870 787 5780.