Tim's show traces his humble beginnings in "tiny, tiny" Guisborough, North Yorkshire, where he grew up wanting to be a bus driver, then was bitten by the acting bug at age 13 in an amateur production of Oliver! "I kept doing shows there until I was 17, when I auditioned for London's Mountview Drama School, got in, and that was it." The show follows him to London, remembering his early work and his musical obsessions. Since graduating from Mountview in 1995, Tim has built a career as a singer and comedian. "I do much more comedy now, and I thank Helen Lederer (of Ab Fab fame), who I did a comedy show with in 2000, because I learned so much from her about writing and discipline and constructing gags."

Tim toured with Helen around Britain for six months, performing in venues ranging from 300 seats to more than a thousand. "Basically I did my musical comedy stuff and then she'd come on and do her stand-up. Then we'd do a couple of rude exchanges," Tim says, laughing. "She was very rude to me in the show, which the audience loved. And then at the end we sang a duet together, 'If I Hadn't Met You', which Simon Brint from Raw Sex wrote for us. It was just a fantastic experience!"

And he's enjoyed watching his career shift from one thing to another, from musicals like Forever Plaid to tributes to Fred Astaire and Steven Sondheim. Last December's Dangerous Cabaret featured Tim and songwriter Brett Kahr in a battle of musical wits centring on the theme of our obsession with celebrity. No one got off lightly: Leo DiCaprio, Posh and Becks, Steps, even Cilla Black.

More recently, Tim performed as Graham Norton's personal assistant at a corporate party. "I was helping him with his act, along with four gorgeous boy dancers!" And he confirms that he did indeed have a "short-lived stint" at the Shadow Lounge in April. He says the crowd seemed to love the Burt Bacharach songs ... but someone upstairs didn't.