The Lancastrian comic kicked off his 74-date tour last night with a sellout gig on home territory in Darwen Library Theatre. He's also there tonight and tomorrow but unless you already have a ticket, you won't get in – a situation that Paddy's Phoenix Nights doorman would no doubt approve of.

He will follow these up with three shows in Bury next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which are also completely sold out. And after September stop-offs at venues spanning St Helens to Swindon, the McGuinness bandwagon will roll into Calderdale on Wednesday, October 1.

Paddy, who has just celebrated his 35th birthday, is currently starring in a Wednesday night TV series on Five called Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure, in which he and funnyman Rory McGrath tour the country in a classic VW split-windscreen camper van in search of strange sporting events, including river football, pie-eating and shin kicking.

On the subject of pie-eating, Paddy is also the face of bakery chain Greggs this summer in a multi-million-pound advertising campaign, his third year of association with the company.

Despite his regular stints on TV, he tends not to watch his appearances. "I'd never met Rory before but I like watching him on TV," he says. "We met up, had a meal and hit it off really well.

"We filmed the series at the beginning of this year but to be honest, it's a blur – we did so much.

"I never really watch myself because once I have done something I'm on to the next thing and at the moment the tour is uppermost in my mind."

Paddy's first UK tour The Dark Side was the fastest-selling of 2006, taking in 115 dates and selling more than 160,000 tickets.

This year's nationwide tour, Paddy McGuinness Plus You, features several regional acts hand-picked by Paddy from hundreds of hopefuls who sent him examples of their act on DVD.

"I don't trust anyone else to do it so I have only myself to blame if it goes wrong," he says.

The man in whom Paddy has put so much faith in this region is Blackpool comedian Andy Watson, who will be taking to the stage at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, to warm up the audience on an October evening.

Viewers first saw Paddy on TV in a series of six one-off episodes in C4's The Comedy Lab. He later appeared as Terry, a work-shy employee in Peter Kay's The Services, following this up with the role he made his own as Paddy the doorman in That Peter Kay Thing. He appeared in the episode entitled The Club which led to the massive spin-off series Phoenix Nights.

After the first series of the cult comedy show Paddy returned to his job as a fitness instructor but was persuaded back to the limelight by his lifelong friend Peter Kay and started work on the second series of Phoenix Nights.

Paddy then went on to co-write with Peter Kay the eagerly anticipated spin off to Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy's The Road To Nowhere, following the adventures of the two Phoenix doormen Max and Paddy and what they get up to on their travels around the country.

A theme has definitely developed for Paddy – travelling around the country, sprinkling a dash of humour. "There's a lot of audience interaction in my shows. There are enough problems in people's lives – they don't need me on stage reminding them," he says.

"It's a topical, modern-day variety show and people can have a night out, enjoy themselves and have a laugh."