Damian Kingsley is one of a very small number of people who are able to admit that they have been booed on stage. He will soon also be able to add that he took a stand-up show across the UK at zero cost and profit.

The Knock-Knock comedy tour takes Damian from Land’s End in Cornwall to Edinburgh, visiting 120 venues. Many of the shows are free with a bucket collection at the end going to the charity Shelter.

Damian enlightens me as to how the idea came to him: “To be honest it just popped into my head.”

He then gives me a little more detail: “I think the reason I did it is at the time I was probably thinking about Shelter because I was in London, seeing a lot of homeless people, thinking that I should do something.

“I was also doing a podcast and when I was doing research and I read about this guy who gave up money for a year or two, the Moneyless Man, and he just exchanged his labour for food and accommodation. I really liked that idea so I stole it.”

I am sure he is glad he did because, 37 days in, the tour is already a great success.

“I’m relying on the kindness of strangers to get from A to B, that’s the rule of the tour. It’s great fun. A lot of the time the venues are really nice, some of them have given me amazing rooms, some of them have given me a sofa in the pub. When I can’t get a place to stay its friends of friends on Facebook.

I assumed that he had been hitchhiking but he eloquently informed me that his go-to hand gesture for hailing a ride seems to be causing some offence so he has mostly arranged lifts from friends and strangers.

“It’s been a real adventure and I get to meet so many nice people, I’ve stayed at so many different types of people’s houses, people from every walk of life. Everyone has their own individual insight and perspective. I get to know them so I’ve made a lot of friends.”

You would imagine you would have to be a pretty confident person to take on such a challenge, but Damian admits this wasn’t always the case. In fact, his lack of confidence earlier in his life almost prevented him from going into comedy.

“I was probably quite a confident kid and then going into the adult world I realised I wasn’t quite confident enough to do it, it took me another 10 years to get to the point that I wasn’t worried about doing it.”

Now, however, Damian wonders if he is a little too confident as he no longer feels nervous in the slightest: “I don’t even feel a change in heart-rate. I think I must have reached a stage when it feels normal to be performing, which is a bit dangerous, maybe an adrenaline rush is a good thing.

“Frankie Boyle said – that’s where the comparison between me and Frankie Boyle ends” he interrupts himself. “He said there was a time when he just stopped getting nervous and I thought I hope that happens to me, my nerves have never been that bad but I’m not one of those people that just doesn’t care, I think those people might be mental.

“I’ve had some horrific gigs, I’ve had some really tough ones,” he hastens to add. He’s also had some that are pretty out of the ordinary.

“I was booed on stage once, at the Comedy Store Gong Show. Ben Norris was the compere, he’s a great compere, and he was being a bit too nice and he wasn’t riling the crowd up so the guys on the sound deck told Ben to rile them up a bit more because the whole premise of the night is that people are a bit aggressive towards the act and hold cards up and boo them off. This riling up of the audience came just before I was about to go on and then he said ‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage Damian Kingsley’ and everybody booed.”

The James Figg, 21 Cornmarket, Thame, Oxfordshire, OX9 2BL, Sunday, May 8, 8pm. Details: 01844 260 166