He’s back after a 16-year break and Alexei Sayle tells KATHERINE MACALISTER why stand-up makes him feel  so alive

It’s never easy to come back. What if you fail? What if your audience is no longer there? What if no one thinks you’re funny anymore? All these thoughts ran through Alexei Sayle’s mind when he emerged from his 16-year break from comedy. But his fears remain unfounded and he’s back, bigger and better than ever before.

“And older,” he reminds me cheerfully. “I’m very, very old, so it took a while to reach real match fitness.” Don’t be taken in for a second. Alexei’s sell-out tour and rave reviews speak for themselves and the 64-year-old is delighted to be back, even if he is a bit tired.

If you didn’t come across him last time around, Alexei Sayle is legendary in comedy circles – he was the first ever MC at The Comedy Store, lynchpin of The Comic Strip, voted one of the UK’s greatest stand-ups, star of The Young Ones, and then he vanished.

“I was a comic persona and was so combative and wound up back then that I never believed I could enjoy doing it again, so I stopped because I was sick of it and couldn’t see where I was going with it, or what I was doing.”

Instead, he took up writing books, which proved a very successful career, but the compulsion became too much and Alexei has now reclaimed his comedy throne. “What I did this time around had to be radically different to what I did before. I didn’t want to be an ‘80s tribute act or there would be no point in doing it at all,” he tells me. “And there are other comedians who’ve been away, got back out there, did what they did before and it doesn’t really work. So it had to work on the right level for me or I would have pulled the plug.“ In other words Alexei Sayle has a name to live up to, but is doing it his way. “When I was doing stand-up before I felt I HAD to do a lot of it, but there’s none of that this time around – it’s what I want to say and do. This is more satisfying and grown up and intellectually more complex, there’s no clowning around this time.”

Empowered then, proud, strident even, and scared. “It’s still absolutely terrifying but it’s been really gratifying and I immediately feel at home on stage – it’s where I’m meant to be, as if a vital part of myself is being served. I may be 64 this year but on stage I’m as alive as I’ve ever been.”

It’s off stage he worries about, though: “It’s the logistics that tire you out because I underestimated the mental energy involved,” he says, although he always has his lovely wife Linda by his side. “She hates it but is very loyal,” he laughs.

Alexei is also delighted to have attracted an entirely new audience: “I can’t work out what they are doing there, although in the old days I felt a post punk aggression towards the audience, and now it’s nice and more fun...” he trails off.

Despite the joys of the ultimate comeback, Alexei is dying to get back home, put his feet up and start writing again. “They are already talking about gigs next year and I’m thinking ‘let’s just get through this first’. I know you’re supposed to capitalise on the buzz from Edinburgh but I’ve only got so much energy and I’d like to get back to writing. I haven’t delivered a book for three years and I’ve missed it. Besides, sitting and working at a desk is quite attractive at the moment. I don’t want to get back in the car again for a while. So I’m going to have a long holiday first.”

But the pros must still outweigh the cons? “We did five weeks at the Soho Theatre and then two weeks in Edinburgh and the reviews were ecstatic, people were saying it was the best stand-up they’d ever seen, so I was very pleased.

“But on opening night at The Soho Theatre I nearly lost my voice. I was straining my voice though fear and had to adjust my vocal cords in the end. “But comedy is a compulsion and there are things I still want to say, so not to carry on would be pointless,” he concludes and then laughs ”although it would be legendary if I came back every 16 years. That would make me 80 next time around.”