Multi-award-winning and trail-blazing comedian, Paul Foot, is back on tour with Dissolve, his most personal, surprising and ground-breaking show ever. As seen on Would I Lie To You?, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

We sat down with him to find out more about what to expect from his show…

We are so excited to have you at Wrexham Comedy Festival. Have you every performed in or been to Wrexham/North Wales before?

Like most comedians, I have been almost everywhere all round the country over the years. I have performed in Wrexham and also once did some filming at a caravan park in Rhyl, where I and the film crew got threatened by a fellow caravaner at 7am with a strimmer. I should point out that although this happened in North Wales, it was not a Welsh person who threatened us. Welsh people are very welcoming and do not threaten people with strimmers, preferring to menace people with a turnip or an aggressively positioned spirit level.

What can we expect from your show Dissolve ?

Expect a surprising and emotional journey into my past, as well as ancient Egyptian-based humour, and what Jesus might have achieved if he'd been a plumber.

What has been your most memorable performance, whether good or bad, and why?

Some years ago, I did a show in Edinburgh in a swimming pool. Yes, you read that correctly! In Edinburgh every broom cupboard becomes a venue during the Fringe, and this year a hotel pool decided to cash in. The host and performers would do their comedy in the water, and the audience would sit on the side. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, this wasn’t very well suited to comedy performance and when I arrived the host was having what I can only describe as a nervous breakdown. Prior to introducing me, she spoke of how fed up she was of doing the show, and of some of the obvious disadvantages of performing in a pool. She sort of went “I thought it would be a brilliant idea to have a show in a swimming pool, but it doesn’t really work. I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks now, and I can’t take any more of it. Now, will you welcome Paul Foot.” I then went 'on stage' and did my act, trying to smooth things over, while the host wept openly in the paddling pool. It was rather embarrassing. I wished that the floor would open and swallow me up, which I suppose in a very real way it already had.

The salt in the wound on this occasion was that this was the 18th show I’d performed that day, as I was attempting to break the world record for the most comedy shows performed in 24 hours. I did break the record, as I managed 25 shows in total, but the Guinness World Record people refused to sanction it due to health and safety reasons. Apparently I could have knocked into someone rushing between shows, so my record attempt was considered too dangerous for the manufacturers of Guinness to have anything to do with. This despite the fact that they have happily sanctioned a man putting 13 live rattlesnakes in his mouth. Still, he probably did a risk assessment instead of naively walking briskly through Edinburgh without the relevant paperwork.

What’s something our audience might not know about you?

I love spiders. Once I was performing a show when the audience stopped laughing and seemed distracted. I asked them why and it turned out there was a large spider in the theatre that was putting some people off. I picked up the spider and put it out of the window and the show continued without difficulty. What the audience didn't know, is that I had failed to put it properly out of the window and the spider spent the rest of the performance crawling up and down my sleeve. I didn't mind. It was so friendly.

Is there a joke or sketch that you wish you’d written?

I would like to have written the Two Ronnies' Mastermind sketch. It's so clever and must have taken ages to work out the sketch's internal logic, with bits of paper all over the floor – my favourite kind of writing. A trivia fact is that online, there's a written out version of the script that is actually an improvement on the filmed version. Not that it really matters. The sketch is so full of classic lines and jokes that only a pedant like me would notice.

What is it about performing live that keeps you returning to the stage?

I can't think of anything else to do for a living.

Any advice to people wanting to get into comedy or are early on in their careers?

Concentrate on improving your least good shows, and your best performances will look after themselves. Reliability is your key to success.

And finally, what’s on the cards for the rest of the year/2025?

I expect I shall do the 80 or 90 or more performances of Dissolve that are already scheduled or are likely to be, and then afterwards I think I'll have a lie down.

To book tickets to see Paul Foot or any of Wrexham Comedy Festival click here.