He co-created The Office and Extras with Ricky Gervais but now Stephen Merchant is stepping into the limelight for his own stand-up tour. Chris Price posed some questions.

What is on your agenda today?
I am crazily busy editing our new sitcom about dwarf actor Warwick Davis. It’s called Life’s Too Short. And in the evening working on my stand-up show. Frankly this interview is very distracting.

On a scale of one to 10, how busy would you say your life is at the moment compared to the busiest point of your career to date? What has been the busiest point of your career to date?
10. This is the busiest I have ever been. Editing the new sitcom, executive producing the new series of An Idiot Abroad and planning my stand-up tour. It’s horrible. I didn’t get into showbusiness to work, I got into showbusiness to sit around in a jacuzzi with page three girls. Where did it all go so wrong?

How have you found preparation for this stand-up tour?
It’s hard to fit it in among the other stuff. I work out my act in front of audiences so I’ve been grabbing every spare moment to turn up on stage in the back room of some pub and try out my ideas. People better see this show because I don’t think I’ll be doing this again. Too much work. Plus, I’ll be sat around in a jacuzzi with page three girls.

Why did you decide to get back into stand-up after so long? How long has it been?
I did stand-up after I left university and I was a finalist in some comedy competitions. I was good enough to get paid, I used to gig regularly, but somewhere along the line I lost interest. Once The Office took off, it just seemed easier not to do it. I didn’t get enough of a kick from performing to warrant driving up and down the motorway to gigs, eating in service stations at midnight. I used to look at Ricky doing stand-up and think, 'Why’s he bothering? It’s so much effort.’ Then I just woke up one day and I had the itch again. I felt I’d never really nailed stand-up. So I started doing five or 10 minute slots here and there and I’ve been pottering round the circuit for a few years now. This tour is the result of that itch.

Were your first warm up shows a daunting experience? Did they go well or badly?
No, they weren’t daunting exactly. Just time-consuming. They all went fine but I am always striving to make the show better, funnier, more interesting. I’m competing with myself each time I go on stage to be better than I was before. And I never seem to win.

Are any of the jokes you have written for this tour ones you couldn’t fit into any of your sitcom/movie/radio work? How easy do you come up with material?
Stand-up is the hardest thing I have ever done. Sitcoms are difficult but at least there is a structure in place. With stand-up you can talk about anything. So where do you start? It’s taken me a few years to narrow this show down to my ill-fated search for a wife. I’ve been hunting for 20 years and I’m still looking. My sex life is very funny, which is good news for the audience but not for me.

Is there anything inside you that wants this tour to be bigger than any of Ricky Gervais’ stand-up tours? Is your relationship with Ricky competitive in any way?
No, I’m not really competitive in that way with anyone. The only person I compete with is myself. I’m always trying to live up to my own expectations. And they are set very high, so I always fail.

If someone asked you what you do for a living, how would you describe it to them?
I think of myself foremost as a writer. Everything else is a bonus. Stand-up is really hard work but rewarding. I enjoy acting because it’s enormous fun, like dressing up when you’re a kid. It doesn’t feel like work. And if other opportunities arise I take them if they seem enjoyable. But most of my year is spent writing in a little office in North London. It’s not at all glamorous. The heating was broken last December, I was wrapped in an overcoat huddled around a little heater. It was like something from Dickens.

Do you like having your fingers in a lot of pies so to speak, doing voiceover, radio, TV, stand-up etc?
I am bored very easily so I like to vary what I do. Whenever I am doing one thing I always wish I was doing something else. The grass is always greener. I’m never satisfied I suppose. I bet if I wish I was sat in that jacuzzi with those page three girls I’d be wishing I was in a swimming pool with Playboy bunnies.

If someone asked you at the age of 16 “what do you want to do when you grow up?” do you feel like you have achieved what your answer would have been?
Yes. I’m very lucky because my ambition as a teenager was to be involved with a sitcom that people would think of with great fondness, maybe even call their favourite. And I’ve done that. So everything else I do is just filling up the time before I die.
And I don’t mean that in a depressing way. I’m a very happy person. Except for this damn jacuzzi thing...

Stephen Merchant has three Kent dates on his Hello Ladies tour. He is at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre on Saturday, September 9. He performs at Margate Winter Gardens on Tuesday, September 20. See him at the opening show of Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre on Saturday, October 8.