Where do you start with a stout Welsh singer who likes getting up on stage dressed as a Russian ballerina called Madame Galina? I had no idea, but as his/her acid tongue, witty repartee and double entendres are quick enough to strip paint, I was on my best behaviour. Unnecessarily as it turned out; even though My Tutu’s Gone AWOL is an adult show, Iestyn Edwards couldn’t have been nicer.

It’s still almost impossible to encompass Madame Galina’s line-up. And after interviewing the 46-year-old I’m none the wiser. “I have been described as the love child of Margot Fonteyn and Tommy Cooper, although I think there’s a bit of Captain Mainwaring in there somewhere,” Iestyn explains helpfully.

From what I can gather his act has two halves, him as a raconteur describing his tours of duty as troop entertainer in Afghanistan and Iraq and his performance for The Queen, and then in the second half as Madame Galina, his alter ego.

“I keep Madame Galina in a box until I’m warming up on stage. She arrives half-way through my warm-up and leaves as soon as I come off stage. But I don’t think about why and how too much, I just get up on stage and do it.”

One thing led to another. A one-night slot at a club in front of Jude Law and Kate Moss meant he was given a residency. The Edinburgh Fringe followed, The Queen’s HMS Victory show, and then the audition to perform for the troops. “They realised when I got there I had no idea what I was auditioning for. I thought it would be a room full of officers in Park Lane not base camp in Afghanistan but I couldn’t back down.”

Dressing up as a Russian ballet dancer in front of the testosterone fuelled crowds of troops takes nerve. So how did it go? “Well in Iraq I got tangled up in the stage wire and fell into the Colonel’s lap. Everyone thought we’d rigged it, but it wasn’t rehearsed,” he chuckled. “I was actually trying to get my body armour off in time to go on stage and tripped, but it broke the ice.”

“But agreeing to do the Marines boxacise class in my tutu was interesting, mainly because it seemed like everyone on the base came to watch. It was quite an event.”

“But Madame Galina is a joy to play and she keeps my fridge full, so I have a lot to be thankful for and I’d be rather lost without her.”

Any the wiser? Me neither. Maybe you should take the advice of an old lady who said to Iestyn after a recent performance in Charlbury: “I didn’t know what to expect but my friend made me get in her car and thank God she did, even if I still don’t know what the hell that was.”

Madame Galina is entertaining at Fritwell Village Hall tomorrow night and returns to Oxfordshire in February. Tickets on 01869 345977.