IN the posters for Tim Vine’s latest tour he has milk bottles strapped to his head and the name of the show is Sunset Milk Idiot.

But if you are expecting any meaning or context or some kind of anecdote or punchline to go along with that you could be waiting a long time.

The former star of BBC sitcom Not Going Out, Guinness World Record holder for most jokes told in an hour and winner of Sport Relief’s darts tournament in 2016 said try as you might, you won’t find a clever bit of wordplay anywhere in that title.

Tim said: “Lots of comedy acts have no puns in their shows but a pun in their title – while I quite enjoy the fact that I have loads of puns in this show but none in the title.”

The title is quite a departure from his previous shows like Punslinger, The Joke-Amotive and the amusingly elaborate Tim Timinee Tim Timinee Tim Tim To You.

Tim added: “It’s just describing what’s on the poster. There’s a bit of a sunset colour, and there’s an idiot with some milk bottles on his head.

“The title made us laugh because the photographer, my tour manager and myself had spent so much time thinking of a pun for it.”

Tim, an Edinburgh Festival Fringe regular, is known for his quick-fire one-liners but as well as always having to come up with new material he said he has to be conscious of the order in which he tells the gags as well.

The 50-year-old added: “There’s a vague science to this but you certainly make sure there are good ones at the beginning and at the end. I end with a song. So, rather than bringing the house down, I try to bring the floor up.

“My support act John Archer will do the first half, then I’ll do an hour or so and then maybe the audience will want me to do some jokes I’ve done before.

“I’m happy to do that, but jokes are probably best the first time or couple of times you hear them.”

One thing Tim is most unlikely to do prior to his tour is pop into his nearest comedy club.

Tim said: “Milton Jones and I have chats about this sort of thing because we hone similar areas.

“But there’s a slight wariness about seeing each other’s show because sometimes it can be a bit uncomfortable waiting to hear a joke that you might also have.

“Having said that, I did see his show recently and there weren’t any moments when I screamed: ‘No! I’m going to have to chop that!”

Tim is also known for his TV work and even made a cameo in Neighbours in 2009 after appearing at Melbourne Comedy Festival.

More recently the BBC recently broadcast the latest instalment of his Tim Vine Travels In Time, a sitcom about a time-travelling antique dealer.

Filming took up a solid part of his diary towards the end of 2017.

But as with most comedians, when a tour approaches everything else is suddenly put on hold.

Tim’s current tour will see on the road until June so it is quite a commitment – not that he minds.

‘Most days I will think of a joke, but I’ll not wake up every morning and immediately start comfort rocking and yelling different words out at the wall’

He added: “The upside is that I tour with my gang, John Archer and my tour manager Andrew Jobbins, and the three of us have a great time.

“If you’re driving around and staying in hotels, it does help when you’re all very good friends.

“If you didn’t like those people it would not be very nice.

“Generally, when you’re on tour, audiences come along because they already know the kind of thing you do and they like it, so when you walk on you’re already in credit a bit. Still, that always amazes me. I look through a crack in the curtain and see people coming in and I think: ‘Who are these people and why have they come to see me?’

“The downside is that it’s very tiring but I head that off at the pass now by having Sundays and Mondays off.

“One of the catchphrases that I chuck out there in the van is: ‘I could live like this’. But, you know, it’s not a bad life.”

So between filming with the BBC at the back end of 2017 and heading out on the road in early 2018 where did Tim find the time to put together the new show?

He said: “Most days I will think of a joke, but I’ll not wake up every morning and immediately start comfort rocking and yelling different words out at the wall.

“Things will just occur to me as I’m pottering around, but getting ready for a tour, I have to make more of a concerted effort. So when I see the first dates of a tour looming, suddenly I get into that frame of mind that I’m looking for things or I’ll book a room and just write all day.

“And then I try them out on an audience. If a joke isn’t going down as well as I’d hoped, you try and tinker with it but eventually you just have to admit that you’re wrong about it.

“Sometimes there are jokes that I’ve done one way round and it turns out it works better in reverse...”

n Tim Vine is at the Parr Hall on Thursday, March 1. Tickets have sold out. Call 442345 to enquire about returns