WHEN worrywart Mark Watson boarded a 24-hour flight not knowing whether he would be allowed to enter the country at the other end he was rightly panicked.

The agonising journey certainly gave him food for thought and he’s now turned his traumatic experience into a stand-up show, I’m Not Here.

“It doesn’t take much of an incident to make me get an hour of nonsense out there,” he says. “I’ve found an existential jumping-off point from almost anything that happens in life. The show is structured around this journey to Australia where I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be allowed in at the other end because of a passport issue. The guy at Heathrow said ‘we can let you on the plane but it will be at their discretion whether or not they let you in’. The passport was totally valid but it had a tiny rip in the photo page, and this would technically render it invalid.”

The incident got him pondering what all this nonsense meant about who we are as 21st century human beings. “I started thinking about how we have fewer and fewer physical proof of our identity. In the old days you wouldn’t have had a problem with this scenario as you’d have a plane ticket and dozens of forms of identity. The show has become about the shift from the physical to the virtual and the fact that more and more of the objects that we used to depend on have been replaced by ideas of objects.”

As well as stand-up, he has a number of novels to his name and has filled his TV CV with appearances on the likes of Never Mind The Buzzcocks. But does he see himself continuing to perform on live stages for many years to come?

“I don’t think I’d ever want to stop being a live performer, but it’s hard to know what the longevity is for this career. If you’re able to say things that are still relevant as you get older, then I think you’re in business.”

Mark Watson will be at the Wyvern Theatre on Sunday, June 5 at 8pm. Tickets are £18. To book call 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk.