A lot of the stuff I do is broad, physical, quite silly.
As a magician or anyone fascinated by magic, the Houdini story is a really impressive one.
I like places that are shrouded in mystery.
I always seemed to appreciate the production value in a show, whether it was a rotating set or a costume that has a bit that flies off it.
When I started off in comedy it was all about the funny, with nothing else to support it.
I worked out that you could have an interplay of comedy and theatre and achieve more than the sum of its parts.
When I was very young, Michael Crawford was a real hero because I saw this guy who could do everything - make people laugh, act, do stunts.
I don't tend to read much comedy, but there's a fake advertisement section at the end of Derren Brown's book 'Pure Effect' which always makes me cry with laughter every time I come across it.
One Christmas Eve I was made to eat a thing the person who cooked it called 'caram-egg' - which was basically uncooked egg in the shape of a cowpat with the tiniest hint of caramel.
I once dreamed that the word 'eight' was actually 'oat'.
I've always liked the idea of writing a workplace sitcom that was set somewhere where the stakes were really huge and yet you would still have those normal, everyday office moments that everyone can associate with.
After I finished university, I was gigging as a comedian in London as well as temping for Morgan Stanley during the day.
