DAVE Spikey will be delivering a knockout blow to comic convention in his Punchlines show at the Grand Opera House, York, on May 7.

Usually, punchlines derive their humour from being unexpected, the “punch” indicating that the “line” should come as a surprise, but can a joke or story make you laugh when Dave gives you the punchline beforehand?

The 63-year-old Farnworth comic and Phoenix Nights star believes so and sets out to present strong evidence to support his contention by working a joke backwards in a show whose concept was suggested by Dave’s wife.

“What I do is project punchlines on to a screen, one after another, and my premise is that even when bombarded with these punchlines, you will still laugh at them when I tell the stories,” says Dave.

“Some of the punchlines are funny on their own, and even though people know the punchlines, sometimes the punchlines can still come as a surprise at the end of a story. It’s that thing of, ‘Oh yeah, I see it now’.

“On this occasion, they’re all standard jokes that people will know already but then I tell the jokes and they still find them funny.”

As part of the show, Dave dissects the craft of telling a joke, looking at the multitude of roots to a punchline and how and why each one works.

“It can be wordplay; or misunderstanding, either of the listener or the person in the joke; or it could be regional jokes, where a punchline is funnier in some parts of the country than others,” he says. “Then there are generational jokes; jokes with actions and physicality; taboo subjects; religious jokes.”

Dave may be a bright spark who was once a bio-medical scientist at Bolton General Hospital but he says: “Without being too analytical about it, I’m not being clever in doing this show, dissecting comedy. A lot of it is down to what Frank Carson used to say: ‘It’s the way I tell ‘em’; you can either tell ‘em or you can’t.

“Like in pubs, when friends are talking, it can become a punchline competition, trying to trump each other with the best joke to win the gag contest.”

Dave began his Punchlines tour last year, then switched his focus to the 16-night run of Phoenix Nights live shows with Peter Kay at the Manchester Arena for Comic Relief, before resuming his solo show travels.

Reprising his Channel 4 role as legendary cabaret star Jerry St Clair on stage was an experience to savour. “It was right up there; the memories from it are in my top three; and I still get emotional thinking about the audience response,” says Dave.

“All these years later after the TV show ended in 2002, there were 14,000 people a night for 16 nights, and I wasn’t on till the second half, so I was dying to get on each night. I put my white jacket on and it was like putting on an England shirt and walking out on to the Wembley pitch. I got goosebumps as I walked on each night. That must be like how a rock concert feels.”

Now Dave is back packing a punch in his Punchlines show once more, proving it is not only the way he tells’em but the way he re-tells them too.

• Dave Spikey: Punchlines, Grand Opera House, York, May 7, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york