THE world's only stand-up comedian for children is coming to Burnley. We found out what tickles James Campbell's funny bones.

JAMES Campbell didn't mean to become the world's only stand-up comedian for kids – he just kind of fell into it.

“I've always enjoyed working with children,” said the 35-year-old, from North London.

“For seven years I toured around schools telling stories I had written. The stories were always entertaining and I would ad lib. One day someone said to me ‘You're doing stand-up comedy there’. So I worked on the stand-up comedy circuit for a few years. I'd do schools in the day times and spend my evenings in comedy clubs. It's about nine years since I started out and my job has kind of amalgamated into what it is now.”

James' unique style includes jokes about everything from Playstations to parents; why we have eyebrows and what he had for breakfast.

“I tend to talk about things that I'm interested in,” he said, “and of course I try to keep it relevant to the children. I might talk about texting, school, anything like that. I make up most of it as I go along which is much better than having a script because it means I can react to the audience more.

“People ask me ‘What makes kids laugh?’ They don't realise it's the same things that make adults laugh. When I play adult comedy clubs I use the same material. The only difference is that you have to slow it down a bit for the adults because they’re drunk.

“The advantage of working with children is that they’re all sober and attentive. Even when the adults aren't drunk you have to take it slower because their attention span is smaller. When you get older some of your brain cells are zapped. With children you can mention something at the beginning and got back to it at the end and they will remember it whereas adults would have forgotten.”

An important part of the job, said James, is not patronising his audience.

“You can't fool kids,” he said. “They see through it. I do what I find funny and it just so happens that children seem to like it. I think that as soon as you start trying to over-analyse it and think ‘What will children like?’ you get into difficulty. I do what I like and that way I attract people who like what I do and I connect with the audience.”

l James’ show is suitable for children over the age of six, parents, and anyone who likes comedy without the rude words. See him at Burnley Mechanics on Wednesday, October 29 at 2pm. For tickets call 01282 664400.