DO you remember master of camp and Celebrity Big Brother winner Julian Clary once tripping up and crashing to the Grand Opera House stage floor in York?

He returns there on May 26 with the discomfort of that November night in 1997 still etched in his memory.

“I was in this huge peacock-feathered thing for the encore, and as I span round, I don’t know what happened next,” he recalls.

What did happen next was that Julian gingerly regained his feet, sweetly said “Sorry” and gamely finished his Special Delivery show – the one about gay Julian’s desire to have a baby – but he was in all-too-evident pain at the after-show party.

“I am quite accident prone,” he says. “I once broke an arm walking on stage in Sydney. I tripped over a box in the wings and I heard my forearm breaking.”

Julian carried on, did the whole show, 18 costumes and all. “Very brave, I know! Then afterwards I went to the hospital and had pink plaster put on it.”

What’s On mentions this injury history because the 53-year-old comedian and novelist is taking a giant step in his new show, Position Vacant, Apply Within. “At some point, I do come on stage on stilts. I learnt stilt walking specially for this tour. It’s not that difficult – though I’ve had a few near misses.”

So, why do it Julian?

“It’s the idea of being Britain’s biggest homosexual,” he says. “It’s a cheap joke.”

He takes further risks in each performance by involving audience members as a key component of a show built around his search for love, promising to leave no straight unturned.

“Because I’m still considered to be quite a catch and because your city is noted for its heterosexuals on the cusp, there’s bound to be stiff competition. Therefore I’ll be hosting ruthless elimination games,” says Julian in the show’s mission statement.

The risk lies in Julian’s choice of contenders.

“It’s entirely done on instinct. I go down into the audience and pick eight to ten people; it just depends on who catches my eye,” he says. “I like variety, all shapes and sizes, and even if they’re scared at first, I find that over the next half an hour, they do enjoy it, partly because there are so many of them together on stage.”

Those “ruthless elimination games” range from performing the first dance for Julian or bobbing for apples in a bucket. “Or something ruder, like having to eat a finger of Fudge in a salacious way – and you find that they do overcome their inhibitions even doing that,” says Julian.

“By a process of elimination, I win the hand of my new love and off we go into the night in York – it’s a happy ending.”

Will he know by instinct if his picks from the audience are gay or straight? “Short of a rectal examination, no, I won’t know,” he says.

The show’s format had been prompted by Julian’s real-life partner having to go to Los Angeles for 18 months. “I wondered if he’d come back – it’s a worry – but he’s back now, and he was absolutely amused by my idea for the show while he was away. He’s not the type to be easily offended,” he says.

“This show comes under the title of a load of nonsense. It’s not a real threat to our relationship.”

Would he like to marry if gay marriage, rather than merely civil partnerships, were to be rubber-stamped for approval? “Sometimes, I think it’s a nice idea. Some-times I can’t be bothered,” says Julian, before turning his answer back to Position Vacant. “In this show, I marry someone different each night in a different city. I’m such a lightweight – it suits my attention span.”

Julian thrives on the unpredictable nature of each show. “It’s never boring and it has that element of anarchy as I don’t just like churning out the same thing,” he says.

“Some people who come on stage can’t wait to get going; some are very shy and can’t wait for it to be over; some people may be drunk; some are mad, and that’s fine by me as I’m mad myself.

“The show is all about improvising and creating comedy out of danger.”

That danger is faced by Clary, not his potential new partner. “I would never want to threaten or intimidate anyone,” he says. “But it is about bringing people into my world on stage to play by my rules, where everyone is a fish out of water.”

• Julian Clary: Position Vacant, Apply Within, Grand Opera House, York, May 26, 8pm; suitable for age 16 upwards. Tickets: £21 on 0844 871 3024 or atg tickets.com/york. Also playing Hull New Theatre, May 30, 7.30pm; 01482 300300 or hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre