It’s been a whirlwind career for Howard Read as KATHERINE MACALISTER discovers when she meets the larger-than-life comic, who is bringing his unique stand-up show to the Oxford Playhouse.

Big Howard is larger than life in many ways. Not only is his TV persona now grabbing the spotlight on stage as well as on CBBC, but his personality would fill any room.

Yet it’s been a strange old road for stand-up comic Howard Read.

One day he was gigging at comedy clubs, then he was performing at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his new character Little Howard and next thing the BBC are waving contracts at him, begging him to change his show to a children’s format for the whole family.

“I now get treated like an honorary cartoon character,” Howard says smiling, “But as I’m 6ft 4in tall, I’m above most of my audience, so tend to get left alone.”

And while by night you can still find Howard doing stand-up, by day he’s having to answer questions on TV like How Can I Catch A Mermaid?, Why Am I Afraid? and Am I Normal? to thousands of school children, becoming a comic encyclopaedia on the moral highway of life.

But rather than being terrified by the challenge, Howard relishes it: “The most common question children want answered is ‘why is the sky blue’ but actually the answer is so involved and complicated, that trying to make it entertaining is almost impossible.

“But my favourite question was ‘Why do things have to die?’ which sounds quite heavy but we turned it into a wonderful sitcom plot about a goldfish.”

So does Howard have to be terribly PC then? “Well yes, but when you’re dealing with children you should have to be,” he says.

And then he laughs: “Although it was funny when our Wikipedia page was hilariously hacked into, and school children wrote their own questions on it which included: Where do babies come from? and What is sexy?, but I’m obviously not allowed to go there.”

With so much going on it’s a strange time to be conducting a national tour of Big Howard Little Howard’s Magic Pencil of Life and Death show, coming to the Oxford Playhouse tomorrow, but then nothing seems to faze this 35-year-old family man, especially a theatre full of children. It’s so great being back doing live stuff and the show is an hour and a half which is bliss for me.

Because as I write, perform it and do the animation for the TV show, I spend all my time in the studio or on the laptop, but on stage I finally get to meet my audience. So it’s great, although I do get a head start with a cartoon boy for company,”

What I want to know is when did the stand-up Howard realise that his life as an adult entertainer had no future?

“Well this was initially an adult show but it took me a long time to realise,” Howard admits.

“People were always bringing their kids to the show even though it was quite adult, and then I cracked and realised that funny is funny whoever it’s for.”

By cracked, does he mean he thinks children’s comedy inferior?

“Well there’s a lot of snobbery in stand-up, but I still do stand-up gigs whenever I can because it’s always good to have something to fall back on. But I can do both and love it.”

And with the Little Howard’s Big Question TV show kicking off its third series this month, he’s going hell for leather.

“Yes, but I also have two children,” Howard says, “which is great because when I’m with them I concentrate on them.

“And Sampson and Mable are very amusing so I often follow them around writing down what they say.

“And I’ve started gardening,” he says unexpectedly, “because all my other hobbies turn into work.

For example, when I learned the ukulele I then wrote a song for it in the show.

So if it wasn’t for the children and my hobbies, I would just think about jokes all day.

“Because a really good joke just pops into your head and makes you laugh. And if I don’t find it funny, how can I expect anyone else to?” he asks.

“In fact,” he says giggling at the memory, “I was driving to a gig the other day when a joke popped into my head and I was roaring with laughter, and although all the drivers around me kept their distance, it did strike me that this is a pretty good way to earn a living.”

* Big Howard, Little Howard star in the Magic Pencil of Life and Death that comes to the Oxford Playhouse tomorrow. Box office on 01865 305305.