FORGIVE Sofie Hagen for foregoing her Fringe preview gig in York earlier this year.

"I got offered Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, so sadly I had to call off York, but then I made a date to play Selby this autumn," says the Danish comedian, last year’s winner of the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer.

Tonight Sofie presents her new show, Shimmer Shatter, at Selby Town Hall as part of her first ever UK national tour that will be a journey of discovery. "You know what; it's totally exciting to be doing this tour, but there's one thing that makes it even more exciting: I don't know about the places I'm going to, so I have no preconceived notions about them," she says. "I don't know what to expect, what to fear."

Sofie has left behind a Denmark where "a lot of the comedy is a tad darker than over here but that tone often gets misconstrued because the whole PC culture has not come there yet". She has settled in London after ignoring her plane ticket home and getting a flat, and now she is touring a show that explores why so many people feel excluded from a world dictated by white, straight, rich men.

"I want to open up doors for people," says Sofie, who is bisexual. "I'm trying to make every venue on the tour anxiety free and gender neutral because I want everyone to feel safe. Shimmer Shatter is about finding that it's OK to be a bit of a weirdo, someone who prefers to be alone and hides in the toilet."

York Press:

Sofie Hagen: "I don't know what to expect, what to fear". Picture: Per Bix

Sofie's show mulls over love and life, "but I haven't really learnt that stuff about how to be human". "Sometimes that causes problems for me. It can be tiring, like not knowing how to do small talk, or not wanting to go to parties, and having anxiety can be troubling, but then you realise you're not alone," she says.

"A lot of my audience come to the shows alone, feeling anxious, lonely and like they're outsiders, and they go home afterwards and write to me to say they were too anxious so they didn't speak to me, but they're warm and kind and, like me, they prefer to come out on a Monday or Tuesday, rather than at the weekend.

"My job demands that I'm often out on a Friday or Saturday, but I'll always rush home straightaway,and I'd love all my shows to be on Mondays and Tuesdays."

Should you be pondering on why the show's title is Shimmer, Shatter, let Sofie explain. "I love the contrast in those words," she says. "It came from a lyric in a song I like by Walk The Moon called Fixin', but in fact I'd misheard it. It's really 'A shimmer, a shadow'!"

Shimmer, Shatter, so much better, don't you think?

Sofie Hagen in Shimmer, Shatter, Selby Town Hall, tonight at 8pm; doors, 7.30pm. SOLD OUT