Damian Hughes

And that, to me, is an encapsulation of a micro habit in action.

It doesn't cost you a penny.

It's small enough to understand, but it's speedy enough that you can implement it right away and see the results quickly.

And can I pass on the tip?

We had a comedian that we interviewed called John Bishop.

And there's a film recently come out called Is It On?

I don't know if you saw it.

But it's based on John Bishop's story that he was a guy that was working in the pharmaceutical industry for years and his wife left him.

And she said that he'd become boring, that he'd become too corporate, become a corporate drone.

So she left him, took the three kids and he would have them every weekend.

And then on a Monday, he'd hand the kids back over to his wife and no, he wouldn't see them again for a week.

So to cope with the sort of trauma he was going through, he started taking himself out into his local city where he went to a comedy club and he realised that he could get in for free if he agreed to do the open mic nights.

And it was from there that he started sort of just talking about his real life, his real life situations.

And he tells a lovely story that one night he was in there delivering a set and his wife was in with her friends and she didn't know he was doing stand-up comedy.

And she said that in that moment, the spark the person she'd fallen in love with was stood in front of the stage talking to her and they rekindled the relationship and started again.

But John told us this great story that he said one of the tips that he'd learned, and I don't know if this is going to help you with your stand-up career if you choose to go back into it, was he said, when you walk onto the stage, say nothing for ages, but move something.

Like he would pick up a chair or a microphone stand.

And he said, just that...

That brief period of time you direct everybody's attention to you and the anticipation of what you're going to say next has them on the end of the line.

Well, I grew up in a neighbourhood similar to yours, a blue-collar neighbourhood in Manchester in the north of England.