Fame has brought Paddy a long way since he was employed scraping dough off the kneading machine at Warburton's bread factory in his home town of Bolton.

But his was not an obvious or quick road to success. Straight from school the Lancashire lad studied a two and a half year diploma in science to become a lab technician, before deciding it looked boring. And on the day he graduated began a job working on a building site.

Since then Paddy has seemingly done every job imaginable, including his job at Warburton’s, before finding his way.

He worked in Morrisons warehouse, as a silver service waiter at a hotel, which was a non starter because he was “always hungry serving food all the time”.

He spent a season in Corfu as a holiday rep and then settled for a while at the local leisure centre in Horwich.

There he worked as a lifeguard, gym instructor, receptionist, you name it and it was while working here that Paddy began experimenting with comedy in his spare time.

“I did my first gig at Lancaster University” remembers Paddy, 35.

“And the compare said, when I had finished, ‘well thank you that was Paddy McGuinness ladies and gentlemen and he claims that was his first time’, so I thought it must have gone pretty well.

“The funny thing is I never planned on a career as such in comedy, it was just something I began enjoying to do and had no idea I’d ever be able to leave my job and make a career out of having a laugh.

"I just wanted something that paid the bills and it all kind of happened by accident.”

Paddy, now the face of another bakery, Greggs, went on to work with friend and colleague fellow Boltonian Peter Kay, who unlike him had always dreamed of a career on the comedy circuit.

Paddy featured alongside Peter in ‘That Peter Kay Thing’ and ‘Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights’.

And it was only during the second series of Phoenix Nights’ that Paddy left his job at the leisure centre when he could not do his fair share of the shifts as filming became more demanding.

The spin off came next, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, which follows the two doormen from Phoenix Nights, played by the comedy pair.

And more and more subsequent TV work has led to his own one man stand up shows touring the country with great acclaim.

His second and current tour ‘Paddy McGuinness Plus You! Live’ — tried and tested as warm up shows on Darwen Library Theatre goers last year — involves 76 scheduled dates around the UK.

The 'Plus You! Tour' features Paddy, along with other aspiring comedians that have been chosen by Paddy himself, through a competition running on his website.

The best act will appear on the DVD and receive a £2,000 prize to help kickstart their showbiz career.

The tour, receiving rave reviews, is just over half way through and Paddy admits he is having a ball.

“I’m really pleased with the tour so far.” He says.

“I do more than just stand up and tell jokes, I’m getting the audience involved this time.

"We did family fortunes with prizes and everything the other night, it was great.

"With all the doom and gloom at the moment with the credit crunch people don’t want to be shedding out for tickets to an average show, so we’ve been having a party, so you get your monies worth.”

His fame, however, has not changed Paddy, who says he will never leave his home town no matter what the future holds or how much money he makes.

He said: “Bolton is where all my friends and family are I love it. I’m just an ordinary bloke.

"I like to play footie with the lads, doing a bit of golf as well and everything I always have.

"My life hasn’t really changed and that’s the way I like it.”

As far as the future career wise Paddy has no great plans in the pipeline or even in his mind.

“I’ll just see what happen” he says. “Rehab maybe.

“On a serious level I want to do more TV but when this tour’s over I think I’ll just need a good rest for a while.”

• ‘Paddy McGuinness Plus You! Live’ — November 13 as part of the ‘You Must Be Joking’ Comedy Festival at King George’s Hall . Tickets on 0844 847 1664.