From the sound of machine gun fire to a Led Zeppelin solo, entertainer Michael Winslow is not boasting when he calls his show The Man of 10,000 Voices. He spoke to Chris Price.

For a man whose vocal chords can imitate the booming sound of Jimi Hendrix’s screeching guitar, Michael Winslow is a very softly spoken fellow.

“I have to take it easy and be very careful,” said Michael from his New York hotel room, the morning after one of his shows on Broadway.

“Any muscle can be overdone. That is why I am talking softly now. You have to take care of it. At some point you have to learn to turn it off.”

Hitting the off switch is becoming more and more important for Michael as he embarks on his first UK tour. Best known for playing Sgt “Motor Mouth” Jones in the Police Academy films, Michael is hitting the road after becoming the success story of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his sell-out show The Man of 10,000 Voices. “I get to see the UK city by city and this is going to be fun. I hope people don’t get mad if I don’t get their accent right,” he said, before launching into an impression of an outrageous English woman interrupting our conversation.

He continues: “I was just getting my feet wet in Edinburgh. It was great. I had never been there before but I understand what winter time is now. The coldest winter I have ever had was a summer in Scotland. You know when it’s like ...” he then launches into the sound of a gale. It is very impressive.

Born in 1958 on Washington’s Fairchild Air Force Base, Michael would imitate the noises of aeroplanes and jet engines as a child and quickly knew he had talent.

“About the third time I got kicked out of pre-school I got an indication there was some noise going on,” he said coyly.

“I think I have the last laugh now though. I’m curious what some of my teachers would think about this. Probably not very much, but that is okay. It’s my job.”

Michael moved to LA to perform in the local comedy clubs. In 1984 producers Hugh Wilson and Paul Manslanski saw him live and immediately wrote him into the script of the Police Academy movies.

Yet Michael’s show is laced with a good sense of comic timing and not just an hour and a half of reeling off the sound effects which got him his big break.

Towards the end of the interview, Michael picked up on the short silences between questions, as I jotted down the final few notes. “It’s like the police isn’t it?” he said, and then, realistically imitating the scribbling sound of my pen: “Sign here; scribble, and here, scribble, and here, scribble.”

At this point I laugh, suitably impressed, only for my jaw to drop momentarily as he asks “Now, let me think... what kind of pen is it?” He lets out a belly laugh. He was joking. The joke was on me.

Michael Winslow performs at Canterbury's gulbenkian Theatre on Monday, June 18. Tickets £15. Box office 01227 769075. See him at Tunbridge Wells' Assembly Hall Theatre on Sunday, June 24. Tickets £16. Box office 01892 530613.