London Comedy Award nomination Tim Vine: ‘I saw a toucan in my garden today. It's quite rare to see a toucan in your garden. Then I got a bit closer and realised it was a magpie eating a banana.’

The Telegraph in conversation with Tim Vine: “Does he suffer from a comic form of Tourette's? ‘If you compulsively pun you are called a paronomasiac,’ he says. ‘I don't have that, I'm certain. People think that because of my act that I must have a really busy mind and I must be driven. I really am not. I quite like going outside and looking at spiders on a hedge in my garden and stuff.’ Vine, who lives alone, then tells a joke about going out into the garden. ‘I saw a toucan in my garden today. It's quite rare to see a toucan in your garden. Then I got a bit closer and realised it was a magpie eating a banana.’”

Vine often talks of his hometown, Cheam in Surrey, perhaps giving the impression that he has not starred in a successful TV series Not Going Out on the BBC and released several DVDs.  But well-travelled and well-liked he certainly is, winning best joke at the Edinburgh Festival 2010, and second best this year. Tim has made several TV appearances, and in 2004 held the Guinness World Record for most jokes told in an hour, toting up an incredible 499, with every single one of those qualifying only when the audience laughed; quite the feat of high speed hilarity.