STUART Goldsmith brings his latest stand-up show, Like I Mean It, to the Burning Duck Comedy Club in York on Saturday on the back of his second international tour.

The host and creator of the Comedian’s Comedian Podcast will be playing The Basement at City Screen at 8pm, buoyed by last summer's Edinburgh Fringe run and winning the Leicester Comedy Festival Best New Show 2017 award with "a flappy, all-over-the-place new material preview".

Goldsmith says: "Look, honestly? This is my best ever show; it's stupider and less clever-clogs and just the funniest stuff I've ever created. OK?"

"In a whirlwind comedy industry full of big money and TV profile acts, I'm proud to be making a name for myself as the DIY comic who really gets under the skin of how comedy is made."

His Comedian's Comedian Podcast involves Goldsmith interviewing his colleagues in comedy, from Jimmy Carr to Russell Howard. "I really pin them down on how they create their material and how they cope with a creative life," he says. "I can count huge names like Ricky Gervais, Sarah Millican and Ross Noble among my regular weekly listeners."

Goldsmith's podcast has hit the peaks of 8.5 million downloads, celebrating its 200th episode with a special appearance by Stewart Lee "that has to be his most-downloaded yet" in a year when his "ComComPod" guests have included Russell Brand, Reginald D Hunter, Jo Brand and Barry Cryer.

"Learning the techniques of the greats is having an effect on my own comedy. I've played in front of 12,000 people at a sold-out Wembley Arena, supporting Jack Whitehall, and last year culminated in a packed week-long run at Soho Theatre in London. Now I'm excited to be bringing my new five-star comedy show to York on Saturday, Duke Studios in Leeds on Monday and around the UK."

In Like I Mean It, Goldsmith is "finally getting accustomed to parenthood and living as a family". "Now the gnawing desperation I used to feel in everyday life has been supplanted by a core of molten joy. The only downside? Oceans of resentment on the surface," he says.

"People talk about 'digging deep' and 'carrying on', but I'm fixated on his wife's insomnia, the price of blueberries, and how hard it is to howl with rage in your car without scaring the postman. Not to mention swimming lessons, interminable Brexit and what a weird place the world has turned into since the baby was conceived."

What's more, Goldsmith is bursting with questions: "How does everyone else cope with the early mornings? What's the secret of lasting contentment? And why, if it's a genuine medical condition, does my wife freak out only at the sound of me eating, and not the little dribbling child?!" he asks.

On Tuesday, Greaves's comedy club hosts its 4th Burning Duck Student Comedian of the Year competition in The Courtyard bar of the University of York Students' Union at 8pm. "Will this ever end? Possibly, but not before Tuesday 5th June!" says Greaves.

"All entrants must be registered students currently studying in a further/higher educational establishment and they each get up to five minutes to perform their comedy. The winner, as decided on the night, will be offered paid work at a future Burning Duck comedy night, along with other ‘prizes’ for other participants."

The night will be headlined by Foxdog Studios. "After a year building an invoicing system in Stoke, rock;n'roll IT consultants Pete and Lloyd, aka Foxdog Studios, are having a party celebrating the end of dBASE IV," says Greaves. "Returning with more music, characters, and baffling tech – including an augmented reality world and an audience-controlled robot chef – this is their most ambitious show yet."

On the 8pm bill too will be Hannah Platt, a rising star on the North West circuit, who delivers her dark and twisted comedy stone-cold deadpan in pocket-sized form.

Burning Duck's busy programme of three shows in six days continues with Sarah Kendall's One-Seventeen show on Thursday at The Basement. City Screen, where she will perform two 45-minute sets from 7.30pm.

"Nominated twice for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show and a total Fringe sell-out in 2015, 2016 and 2017, Sarah is embarking on a UK tour with her latest show," says Greaves. "It's a blistering storytelling experience from the creator and star of the hit BBC Radio 4 series Australian Trilogy, which won the coveted 2018 Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy, with the second series set to broadcast later this year."

One-Seventeen is a melange of connected short stories with adult themes that combine comedy and tragedy in equal measure: for example, a family in crisis waiting to see Halley’s Comet; a hamster with organ failure; an astronaut re-entering the atmosphere. And why is the title One-Seventeen? Apparently the show is about a number and all the people contained inside it.

For tickets for Burning Duck's gigs at The Basement, phone 0871 902 5726 or book at wegottickets.com/event/423635. For Tuesday's Student Comedian show, go to ents24.com/york-events/

Charles Hutchinson