Seann Walsh’s shambling ways don’t hide his success

Walsh was nominated for the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award. Picture: Malcolm McCurrach

SEANN Walsh is moving onwards and upwards. Literally. Thanks to mobile, hands-free technology, we’re chatting even as the Brightonian comedian is being instructed not to carry his television set upstairs.

“I’ve had to move because my flat is covered in mould and I was finding it hard to breathe,” the 27-year-old wheezes as he’s banished to the removal van. His latest show, the Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated The Lie-In King “was meant to be about this,” he sighs, “trying to sort my life out and then making the mistake of getting a basement flat and my life getting worse, not better.”

The Lie-In King was written in under two months and never committed to paper. Earlier in his career, however, Walsh sketched ideas on Post-it Notes and plastered his living room in them. “Then as things joined up, I moved the notes to create a sort of map. That stopped when I got a girlfriend.”

Back in Scotland for the first time since his successful Fringe run – and after fronting his own internet clip show, Seann Walsh World, and making his acting debut in Big Bad World alongside The Inbetweeners’ Blake Harrison, both on Comedy Central – he’s about to return to Channel 4’s topical comedy showcase Stand Up For The Week and is releasing his first DVD. “I’m telling you this in front of my girlfriend,” he says modestly. “I’m not the sort of person to get excited about walking into a shop and seeing my face. And with the DVD market dying, I may as well. DVDs might not exist next Christmas!”

He’s at pains to point out that, despite all this, he hasn’t changed. “Once you put on a nice suit and go on telly with makeup, people tend to overlook you living the life of a bum.” In one respect though, he’s “getting bigger every day” and is considering reining in his drinking: “I’m massive now. I’m going to be this massive, fat, hairy, observational comic.”

The role of feckless bedsit philosopher Eggman in Big Bad World was perfect for him. And though wary of being pigeon-holed, Walsh appreciates audiences having “a very clear idea of me”. He enjoyed the Fringe this year, because “for the last couple of Edinburghs, I’ve felt like I’ve got a bit lost with who I was as a comedian. Now I’m back where I started and that’s a good thing.”

• Seann Walsh headlines the Punchline comedy nights at Perth Concert Hall tomorrow and The Picture House in Edinburgh on Saturday. www.seannwalsh.com