PURR-FECT GENTLEMAN

GRIFF RHYS JONES IS LETTING THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG ABOUT HIS LIFE AS HE HEADS BACK OUT ON TOUR. MARION MCMULLEN LEARNS MORE

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"OK, all you b******* out there, I'm paying my dues now, aren't I? I may have been plucked unworthily to huge fame at the age of 26 but look at me now".

Why is the tour called The Cat's Pyjamas?

I just like the sound of it. Funnily enough my daughter said, "You can't call it that," and when I asked her why not she said, "Because it means you have to be good!". But as I say, I like how it sounds.

Also "the cat's pyjamas" is a very interesting phrase and I might talk about how it started in the 1920s in New York. Apparently there was a famous society hostess who used to take her cats for a walk along Fifth Avenue and she would wear pyjamas when doing so.

But really what I'm saying at the start of the show is that it's you the audience who are the cat's pyjamas. I start with egregious flattery of my audience.

What can audiences expect?

It's the fourth show I've done where I tell stories from my life - about myself and things I've been involved in. Trouble is, some of the stories get longer and longer and longer.

I start out with list of about 20 and end up with a list of about two.

If you come to see me early in a tour you tend to get all the stories.

If you come late in the tour, a lot of them have gone by the wayside.

There was one show on one tour where I was on stage at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, talking about my family and things like that. I looked into the wings and my stage manager was tapping his watch signalling the end of the first half and I hadn't even properly started the show at all by that point.

Is throwing everything open to audience questions asking for trouble?