IS there anything Phill Jupitus hasn’t done? A DJ on BBC 6 Music, team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, poet who supported Billy Bragg in the 1980s, TV and film actor, improv player, and musical star of Hairspray and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he’s now returning to stand-up with a new tour in which he gets to be two people.

“I have a lot of material to choose from for this tour,” says Phill, on his stand-up, poetry and music show, Juplicity.

“The thing that really works for me is that I support myself as Porky The Poet, so he goes out and does 40 minutes to start the evening.

“Because of Buzzcocks and other jobs, I let Porky and the poetry slide but after about a decade I came back to it and wrote new poems, just chucking stuff out on Facebook for mates to read.

“Combined with the old poems, and factoring in chit-chat between them, I had about an hour of material.”

He’s also got a proven track record of live music.

“All that comes from the time I was in the band with Neil Innes and Ade Edmondson. For the tour, I’ll do two hours a night: 40 minutes poetry, quarter of an hour of songs, and the rest is stand-up.”

In terms of the comedy, Juplicity draws on his own life.

“One of my daughters married her American girlfriend and emigrated there, so what you get is a starting point: gay marriage... dovetailing with what’s happening in the world with Trump and so on,” he says.

“As a comedian, what you have to do is look at things and shift your camera angle.

“All comedians can do is put a wider lens on a situation so it resonates.”

When Phill started out, he probably never thought he’d find himself on a stage, in full make-up, belting out show tunes.

But that’s one of the paths he’s landed on, with large-scale touring shows such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Spamalot and Hairspray now on his CV.

“My agent phoned and said, ‘There’s a casting director in the West End who wants to talk to you about being Count Fosco in The Woman In White’. I was like, ‘What! I don’t sing!’ ‘Well, they think you do’. Turns out they’d seen me do the intros round on Buzzcocks and felt I could hold a tune. So I took some training and auditioned and they said ‘Maybe not this time, but do you want to be Wilbur in Hairspray?’

“I went to see it and even though I’m watching Mel Smith as Wilbur thinking, ‘Yeah I could do that’, I kept looking at Michael Ball as Edna and thinking, ‘That looks like a lot of fun’.”

As fate would have it, he was offered the part of Edna instead. “I was thrown into it, three months in a dress, wig and lipstick. I’d just come out of 6 Music and felt a bit adrift then Hairspray comes along then Spamalot. As a stand-up, you don’t think, ‘This is it now’; there are always other options. That’s why there’s a little resentment about stand-ups because we’re so adaptable.”

It’s hard to know exactly what’s down the next road for the ever-adaptable Mr Jupitus, but for now he’s enjoying the cut, thrust and edge-of-the-seat jeopardy that comes from live comedy.

“I think I’ve found a way of monetising a social dysfunction. I’ve always maintained there’s something slightly wrong with arts and crafts types putting themselves in the most confrontational situation, standing in front of strangers and trying to get them onside.”

Whether he’s dressed as a woman in a musical, performing poetry or doing personal stand-up, Phill Jupitus is keeping everyone on his side.

l Phill Jupitus is at King’s Hall, Ilkley, on Monday, November 6. Call (01274) 432000.

- Brian Donaldson