NISH Kumar will be in Nostradamus mode on Thursday at the Grand Opera House, York.

In his tour show It’s In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves, the 33-year-old London stand-up will be pondering mankind’s capacity for self-destruction and whether it will lead to the end of days.

Such thoughts are brought to the fore by Brexit, an interminable irritant to Nish that has twice found him blowing a gasket in his frustration on BBC One’s Question Time. "You just lose your patience," he says. "You're on there usually as either a politician or an expert, and I'm neither, so my job is to be the 'private citizen, the voice of the public'...and I think there's a sense now of how it's going so badly, what have you been doing to us?

"The York show will be the first after Tuesday's 'Meaningful Vote', and the most concerning thing is that we're in a period of complete stasis where nothing happens, where we're trapped in this death loop."

Although the tour title is It’s In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves, Nish says: "I definitely think it's 'our nature to destroy ourselves', because it feels very apposite for the time we're in.

"The title sounds philosophical and weighty but it comes from Terminator 2; it's so portentous, it could easily have been said by Plato but in reality it was said by Arnie [Schwarzenegger].

"I know that film very well because it's a film I loved when growing up and that sentiment is what's going on now, so I like its topicality."

Looking ahead, Nish says: "The danger is with all the fatigue surrounding Brexit, we default into a No Deal position", a position that would indeed be the end of days in his opinion.

Hence the no-messing tone of his topical comedy, as The Mash Report and Newsjack host heads around the country. "The humour I really responded to when growing up was comedy that didn't undermine the seriousness of the topic but gave you relief in that moment," says Nish.

He wishes there could be an alternative focus in politics, away from Brexit "causing unnecessary chaos and confusion". "There's spiralling inequality; people in desperate need of services they can't get, and then there's the fact that the planet's going to explode in ten years, but all that is put to one side because of the zealots' desire for self-destruction," he says.

At the root of the problems engulfing us, suggests Nish, is one common denominator. "As prosaic as it may sound, 'it's the economy, stupid'," he says, before broadening his point. "Until we teach our nation's history properly, we won't understand our 'interconnectedness' with Europe, which was deemed necessary at the time the continent went to war twice in 20 years."

Should we expect our comedians to come up with answers, as well as asking questions, Nish? "I think people maybe are looking to comedians to do that, but that must be a sign of how bad things are getting, because there's no way you should look to comedians for answers," he says.

Instead, after a night of comic relief from Brexit, however temporary, at the Grand Opera House, Nish will be taking part in Comic Relief 2019's Red Nose Day on Friday, seeking to benefit others: a message to all politicians, whatever their allegiance.

Nish Kumar, It’s In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves, Grand Opera House, York, March 14, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york