Despite making it as a comedian at such a young age, Daniel Sloss is an average lad who plays XBox and gets hammered on his birthday. Chris Price reports.

Most self-respecting 21-year-olds would answer "getting smashed" when asked how they are celebrating their birthday - and Daniel Sloss is no exception.

"I'm counting down the hours until me and my mate's joint 21st birthday party tonight. Then I'm off to get horrendously drunk."

The young Scottish comedian is full of the youthful exuberance which got him his first TV gig on Channel 4's the Paul O'Grady Show at the age of 19. In fact, he was the first stand-up to ever perform on the show and he has now landed another first, his debut UK tour which is heading to Kent.

Before all that, his focus is very much on his birthday shenanigans which he has decided to leave until after his actual 21st birthday. The date unfortunately fell on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"It is not a great day to have a birthday," he said in his thick Fife accent.

"The twin towers was terrible. But what a lot of people don't know is that September 11 is the day when William Wallace beat the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, so from that point of view it is a good day."

After doing an eight-date headline tour of his second solo Edinburgh Fringe Festival show My Generation, Daniel has now embarked on his first "proper" tour, with 50 shows across the country.

He has come a long way since he began his stand-up career at the age of 16, billed as a hormone-ridden, half-man-half-XBox prodigy. Yet he sees no irony in winning the Best New Comedian gong at the Scottish Variety Awards this year, after five years on the circuit.

"I only got my first TV experience at the age of 19 so although I wasn't new to comedy I was new to the limelight," said Daniel.

"I was thrilled and being a young comic is a good niche to have. But I'm nowhere near the youngest. Ross Noble started when he was 15, Seth Rogen when he was 14. Lots of comics start when they are 16 or 17 but since the comedy boom in recent years I have been given opportunities people in the past would not have been given. That is what has given me my niche."

Appearances on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Jason Manford's Comedy Rocks, The Rob Brydon Show and Comic Relief's Mock The Week have given Daniel lots of exposure at such a tender age.

But he in no way sees himself as something special for having success so young.

He said: "I am very lucky. Comedy is now in everything. There is more stand-up on TV now than ever before and I'm lucky to have started at the time that was happening.

"If I had started 20 years ago I would never have had these chances to be on TV."

Making people laugh got me out of trouble.

Although he was born in Kingston upon Thames, Daniel grew up in Fife and caught the comedy bug after taking up acting at the age of eight.

He said: "When I started out I was always getting the comedy roles. I worked out it wasn't the acting I enjoyed but it was making people laugh. I used to get myself out of trouble in school by making people laugh. If you can make people laugh it is hard for them to hate you."

Daniel Sloss performs at Canterbury's Gulbenkian Theatre on Thursday, September 29.