Trying to interview Sean Hughes is a bit like trying to hold onto a bar of soap in the bath.

Just when we get to grips with a subject – such as death, the focus of his new show – he’s firing questions back, wanting to know the last record I bought and where I’ve been on holiday.

Somehow we get from TV comedy to Berlin’s Holocaust Museum.

Sean is endearingly playful; something he brings into his show Life Becomes Noises, in which he addresses his father’s death.

As funny as it is poignant, the show starts with Sean dressed as a jockey – a nod to his father’s love of horse racing – and includes props and puppetry.

“It’s not me standing there with a mic, it’s a narrative – although I still like a gag,” says Sean.

“It isn’t sentimental, it’s just honest. All good comedy should come from truth.

“No-one really knows how to react around death, and I accept that a show about death might not appeal to everyone, but it’s actually uplifting. It makes people think about their own relationship with their parents, and appreciate the time they have left with them. Ultimately it’s a feelgood show.”

Critics have highlighted Sean’s skill in shifting between pathos and humour. Just when audiences are moved by his poignant narrative, he punctures any melancholy with a quickfire gag.

Did his father’s death leave him with a different perspective on life? A desire to seize the day? “That’s a bit Dead Poets’ Society, is that where you got it from?” he grins. “We tend to think death will have that effect, but our life is our life and it goes on. I came close to annhiliation in the (2004) Tsunami but it didn’t change me.”

Since becoming the youngest ever winner of the Edinburgh Festival’s Perrier Award, Sean has carved a career as a comic, actor, novelist and playwright.

In the nineties he starred in cult TV hit Sean’s Show and had a long stint as team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He’s had acting roles in TV shows such as The Last Detective and Coronation Street, Alan Parker’s film The Commitments and As You Like It on stage, alongside Sienna Miller. He hosted a show on BBC 6 Music and, as a writer, has produced two novels, The Detainees and It’s What He Would Have Wanted, and short plays Dehydrated and Travellin’ Light.

Life Becomes Noises marks the Irish comic’s return to live comedy following a seven-year break. And he has no time for bite-sized stand-up comedy on TV.

“It’s a bit like speed dating,” he says. “I think television comedy is killing live comedy. Comedy is much more powerful and exciting live, but when people see a comic on telly they buy tickets for his arena gig just to say they’ve seen him. It could be anyone.

“For me, comedy is storytelling.”

I suggest that watching snippets of stand-up on telly is like downloading random songs instead of listening to an entire album.

“I’m 47, I don’t download – do you? What was the last record you bought?” he asks, turning the interview on its head with the skill of a seasoned storyteller.

l Sean Hughes is at the Alhambra Studio on Saturday, May 11. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.