“It was a hilarious show last night. We had an endocrinologist up on stage who explained each gland and its function and then everyone who came up on stage had a different role in ‘Gland the Musical’. We just rolled with it. It was a special night.”

Having just returned from a mad stint at the Edinburgh Fringe where she received top billing, comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti has gone back on tour for a rest.

“I just dipped my toe in, but I was playing the biggest venues so I guess I’ve made it,” she laughs. “Prime time, which felt quite good, but amidst all the excitement, there’s a lurking worry in the middle of all the joy. Where do I go from here?”

It’s about time Nina popped out at the top of the comedy tree, because she has been slowly but surely peddling away, carving her own niche in the predominantly male world of stand-up.

And yet her act has remained fundamentally the same, her inimitable audience-participatory ventriloquism involving lots of masks, puppets and of course her famous side-kick Monkey.

Last time Nina came to Oxford however things didn’t go quite to plan, an unusually hard show and the first night of her new tour. “Everyone was there that night, all the producers, promoters and agents and I kept getting more and more people up on stage and then had to keep all the balls in the air.

“It was quite hard work. But I’ve learned from that and simplified everything since then – but that’s the tyranny of laughter and a year in it’s a different show. It is noble with its idiocy. There’s more meat to it now.”

So is there a reliance on the audience then to be on form? “No," she says in horror. I shouldn’t rely on them to make sure the show is a success, that’s my job. If it’s up to them then it doesn’t work. But I enjoy the struggle.”

“I’m good at managing people and relish the curveballs

Coming to Oxford this time straight from a West End run, Nina, daughter of famous actor Tom Conti, says touring is harder on her family, living as she does in London. Because without a nanny, she says everything is a scramble, at all times.

“It’s a constant juggle with babysitters and bedtimes are sacred but now I’m on tour about four nights a week my mum and husband are holding the fort, so it’s quite tricky. Things just unfold and my year fills up.

“But then I’ve always worked out all my personal issues on stage, my life is just projected onto other people,” she laughs.

And while she knows her next move is being closely watched, Nina is reluctant to give up on such a good thing for the sake of her detractors.

“I can’t carry on doing this show for too long, and I have some ideas and notions, but I don’t want to do it for the critics, but for myself.

“Because improv is really having its day. Look at Showstoppers, we had equal billing at the Fringe and we are both improvisers.

“And this show can run and run because it does change and it is different every night.

“So I am going to have to write something new one day but I’m quite reluctant at the moment because the show gets more and more fun and there’s still so many directions to take it in, the way you craft it, it is always a pattern of discovery."

Still the pressure on her is huge, especially with so many TV appearances. Does it ever get to her? “Like everything, it’s only an effort if you make it so. If I’m relaxed then things tend to be alright and at the moment I’m pretty relaxed.”

Nina Conti

New Theatre, Oxford

October 5

www.atgtickets.com/oxford or 0844 871 3020