I WAS IN MY HEAD A LOT AS A kid; I had a lot of sci-fi fantasies about outer space, butterflies, zebras and fairy tales. I was well known in high school because one day this girl attacked me for sitting at the wrong table in the lunch room. I wasn't popular enough to sit with them so she yelled at me and embarrassed me in the way only a screaming woman can, so I took my juice and threw it in her face. I was popular after that.

MY EARLIEST MEMORIES ARE ALL from the estate that I spent the first 12 years of my life on, of a time and place that's gone. I couldn't understand that we were poor, we always seemed to have enough to eat.

THE FIRST JOB I HAD WAS IN A steak house. I remember getting hired and I was good. The job depended largely on tips, so I hustled and hustled. The key was being friendly, making jokes - but not too many - and anticipating what people would need, the kind of things you'd do with a woman.

THE BEST ADVICE I'VE EVER received came from the president of the Mississippi Film Commission. He said: "No matter what you do in this business, you should always retain the ability to say no'. When you go for jobs in Hollywood or New York there will be people who will say yes' to everything and it's those people who end up emotionally destroyed or as drug addicts or alcoholics." So I say "no" a lot - that's why I don't have my own TV show.

SUNDAY MORNINGS ARE USUALLY spent recovering. They're usually very slow or I'm getting ready to travel, so I try to save my energy. That or listen to my girlfriend fussing about me not spending enough time with her.

THE BESY HOLIDAY I'VE EVER been on is the only one I've ever been on, to Miami Beach about eight months ago. I've been on working holidays before where I had gigs but that was the first time I got to go somewhere with the intention of just relaxing. I wanted to go somewhere people were optimistic, so that ruled out Alton Towers.

AT THE MOMENT I THINK STEVE Hughes is the most amazing comic on the circuit. He cracks me up - when I look at him, he makes me think to myself: "I've got more writing to do". I didn't set out to become a stand-up, so it's the most surprising thing that's ever happened to me. It happened because I was in Britain and didn't have a work permit and I lacked the skill and talent to do anything else.

I DON'T HAVE A FAVOURITE TV programme. I'm usually working when most of the good ones are on and I am perpetually baffled by some of the stuff that is on TV. I love films, though. Marlon Brando is my favourite actor and Last Tango In Paris, at the moment, is my favourite film. I just like the idea of two people meeting up and not falling into the traps that couples usually do.

I WONDER ABOUT HOW I'LL BE IN old age. I don't believe I'll be lonely, I don't think there'll be tonnes of grandkids around me, but I think I'll be OK. But, you know, suicide seems more of a possibility these days. I don't mean it in a depressed, morbid way, I just think that it's absurd that you have to go to a court to kill yourself - I don't think it's anyone else's business. That might be my final way of sticking it to the man.

Reginald D Hunter was a Perrier Award nominee in 2003 and returns to the Fringe again this year with his stand-up show No Country For Grown Men

Interview by Jamie Lafferty