"I have a sleep disorder called sleep apnoea, which means my nights tend to be punctuated by ferocious snoring and choke attacks. Most days, I work as a GP and tend to get up about five minutes before I leave the house. I have three separate alarms, all set at various sensible times to allow me time for a cup of coffee, some breakfast and a shave, but it never happens.
I've become old enough to listen to news rather than music on the radio to try to find out what's going on in the world while I drive to work. I'm a locum GP so where I end up working changes from day to day. I tend to see a variety of people with relatively minor ailments during a morning.
I never use comedy during my work as a GP. Occasionally, there's a crossover when a patient walks in and says they've seen me on stage, which is slightly embarrassing for all concerned. From an ethical point of view, I don't want anyone sat there thinking they may be the subject of a future routine. And no matter how you dress it, medical anecdotes always end up being a doctor, doctor joke.
Medicine always seemed a pragmatic and practical thing to do, although I went into it more out of duty than love. I come from a long line of doctors and was only too happy to follow in my ancestors' footsteps.
I did my first open spot as a comic while I was still a house doctor in south London in 1995. At first, it was just a hobby to challenge myself with every few weeks, but as I started improving, and people started taking notice, it became more and more difficult to combine the careers.
It's fair to say my parents were somewhat bemused by the turn of events, to put it mildly. I think my dad is secretly quite pleased, because he was a bit of a closet entertainer back in the day. My mum finds the whole thing bizarre but has always offered her support. Like typical Indian parents, when I appear on television or in the national press, they're only to happy to tell their friends. In general, they've been really supportive, even if they secretly think I'm an idiot.
The experience of being a comic can range from being extraordinarily exhilarating to nightmarish beyond belief. There are times when you say as long as I come out of this with dignity I'll be happy'. Worse than that are the very few occasions when it's a little bit boring. Ideally, it should be about feeling the adrenaline buzz, walking on stage and being totally focused, and for the most part it's still that kind of experience.
My show in Edinburgh last year was confessional to the Nth degree. At the Fringe, it's almost expected now that to raise your head above the parapet you've got to give as much of yourself as possible. If you're doing a comedy club on a Saturday night for a couple of hundred people it's a different thing. It's the quick laughs that matter - not you having a cathartic experience on stage.
One of the reasons people struggle when they start out in comedy is that they only have a small amount of material. Experience gives you a much broader base to work from and you start learning the art of playing different sets. The main thing is that people have paid money to come to see you so you don't want to disappoint them.
The Clark Kent thing of quickly shuffling into a phone booth and turning from a mild mannered GP to Super Comic doesn't really happen any more. About five years ago, I'd literally be working all day and then driving off to do a gig somewhere else. What you notice after a while is you just get too tired to do yourself justice. I've very much made efforts to move away from that lifestyle and do my gigs these days in a more planned and measured way, which has made me more relaxed and happier in myself.
Depending on where a gig is, it can be anything up to four in the morning before I get home. I've spent much of the last 12 to 18 months on overnight coaches, which I think is a safer way of getting round the country than risking falling asleep at the wheel.
To unwind, I try to just read the sports headlines on Teletext, maybe make myself a ham sandwich and then go to bed. There have been moments when I've been caught up in ITV's late-night quiz shows and have fallen asleep on the sofa. They're horribly hypnotic. I never ring up but suddenly I want to know whether anyone's going to ring in and get the answers. That's never good because you wake up in a terrible state of discomfort in the middle of the night.
I don't think too much about which career I prefer but the easy answer would be comedy. It's a sexier, more glamorous lifestyle. But I don't resent being a GP at all. I'd be mad to say it fills me with joy but at the same time I don't dislike it. It's a worthwhile vocation and, like the comedy, I can't really imagine a life without it. I've always felt what I do during the day is nobody's business but my own."
Paul Sinha performs at the Universal, on March 18, in Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival.
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