LANCASHIRE funnyman Patrick McGuinness has come a long way since his days working as a lifeguard at Horwich Leisure Centre.

The best friend of star comedian Peter Kay, he first shot to fame as doorman Paddy in Kay's TV series Phoenix Nights - although famously didn't give up his day job until work on the second series began.

Paddy went on to co-write a spin-off series, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, release a fitness DVD, Max and Paddy's The Power of Two, and tour the UK with a solo stand-up show.

Now he's back with a brand new tour, Paddy McGuinness Plus You Live, in which the support acts have been hand-picked by Paddy himself.

He told us about DIY, being famous and getting free pasties.

PADDY McGuinness is still catching his breath when he answers the phone.

He's just been shifting wooden fence panels around his back garden, you see.

"My mate's helping me put this new fence up," he explained in his broad Bolton accent.

"So I've been piling the wooden panels up for him all morning."

The thought of another celebrity in the same league as Paddy doing manual labour seems ridiculous - can you imagine Jimmy Carr doing DIY, for instance?

But with Paddy it seems normal, because that's exactly what he's always been - a normal guy from the North West, who just so happens to have a job that makes him a famous face.

"I'm lucky," he said "I have a good job that pays well but I still have my life. I still live in Bolton, I still play football every week with my mates and I still drink in my local.

"I was given a chance and I took it. I worked hard for it - you don't get anything in this life for nothing, but I just keep going, keep touring and take things as they come."

He admits that he does get a reaction when in the street, but takes it all in his stride.

"Bolton's only a small place and people get used to seeing you," he said.

"Whenever I go out the camera phones do come out but it's not ridiculous.

"I don't court the press. I don't feel the need to see my face in magazines and you won't catch me falling out of Stringfellow's in the early hours with someone off EastEnders in a headlock."

The new one-man show, Paddy McGuinness Plus You Live, will feature support acts from across the UK hand-picked by Paddy himself, X Factor-style.

Paddy has been sifting through the audition DVDs in the evenings and reckons he's found a few gems already.

"At the risk of sounding like Simon Cowell, there's a lot of good acts out there that never get the chance," he said.

"I'm wading my way through the DVDS at the minute. I tend to do 10 to 20 a night, after that you get a bit snowblind. I've already selected about five or six who are great and will hopefully be coming on tour.

"I've seen a lot of singers and I've been impressed by a few magicians, which surprised me because I'm not usually a big fan, but there's some cracking ones. One guy makes a helicopter appear on stage! Can you imagine that at King George's Hall?"

Before the tour officially starts Paddy will do a series of warm-up gigs at Darwen Library Theatre and Bury Met in August, as he did before his 2006 tour The Dark Side.

"Darwen Library Theatre is basically like Manchester Opera House but scaled down," said Paddy.

"It's got a really nice feel to it and you can more or less touch the audience when you're on stage so it's great for trying stuff out. You can instantly see what's going down well and what doesn't work.

"The staff are lovely too. I'll be a bit nervous because it's all new material and it helps that everyone's really nice.

"I'm honest with the audience. I tell them, I'm going to write this stuff down as I go along you know - you've got to haven't you?"

Paddy admits he enjoys local gigs - not because the audiences appreciate his humour more, but because he can get home quicker after the show."

Of course, Paddy has also been on our screens of late with his new advert for Greggs.

Does he get free pasties?

"I don't bowl into every Greggs I go past and demand free pasties," he laughed, "Although I walked into one Greggs the other day giving it the 'big I am' and there was this old Chinese woman behind the counter. She didn't have a clue who I was!"

  • Paddy's warm-up gigs at Darwen and Bury Met are sold out, but you can see the new show at Burnley Mechanics on September 4 (01282 664400); Manchester Opera House on October 25 (0870 401 9000); King George's Hall, Blackburn, on Thursday, November 13 (0844 847 1664) and Blackpool Opera House on Saturday, November 22 (0844 856 1111).