Patrick Kielty on why it was the right time for Borderline UK tour after six-year break

"I haven't done a tour in six years because we were living in America and I didn't want to be away from the kids," he explained.

"So you've kind of got that thing off thinking it's going to be like just slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers whenever you've done stand up for so long, but because every stand up show is different - you know comedy is the opposite of music, so when you go to see a music artist you love, you want them to sing the old stuff that you know, but with a comedian, even if you love them you want them to tell you some new stuff, so it was like learning to dance the first show, but once you get your moves down, you chill out."

While Kielty says his move back to the UK with wife Cat Deeley and their two sons - Milo (six) and James (three) - made it possible for him to get back, in terms of creativity, he believes he was more ready than ever.

He continued: "I mean, there's two things obviously: to be back in the UK and to be able to do UK dates and still see your family. The brilliant thing is that people want to laugh at the weekend, so it's quite good that you can still do family stuff at the beginning of the week and then you can go do live shows from Thursday.

"So from a practical point of view, it meant that I could do a show now that we're back here in the UK. And I think from a creative point of view, it felt like the right time to do something about where we are as a society, because a comedian kind of shouldn't be getting on stage unless you've got something to say."

Touching on the theme of his show, he added: "Very few places actually make peace and function as a society afterwards, and Northern Ireland has really thrived. You know, we've got so many tourists now and we've got so many movies been shot there. We've got so much going on there that you couldn't have dreamed of as a kid, so it's interesting. I kind of feel that when you're from Northern Ireland, it used to be about history, and now it's not, so maybe there's a little message in there for the way things are going in the rest of the country."

Patrick Kielty’s Borderline UK tour, 11^th May – 2^nd July. For tickets and venues: www.patrickkielty.com

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