Waiting outside a major bookstore for a book signing event with comedy king of camp Alan Carr, I think I’ve found the man himself chatting to his fans in the queue.

The trademark black-rimmed glasses and buck teeth are unmistakable, until I look closer to see that it’s an Alan Carr lookalike, holding pictures of his comic idol.

When I’m finally introduced to the real Alan Carr in a private room in the store and inform him there’s a lookalike in the queue, he puts a hand in mock shock to his mouth, looking nervously at his publicist.

“Chris Moyles says it’s always good to have a codeword for security, so like 'I could murder a coffee' means 'Help! There’s a weirdo in the queue'. But I’m really just flattered that people are turning up."

Anyone who has seen him live will know that Carr’s comedy is largely gleaned from his own experiences in life, from being bullied as a child to suffering dead-end jobs in a Barclaycard call centre and at Tesco Brent Cross.

That was before he embarked on a career in comedy, making his name at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of 2005, when he was spotted by Channel 4 and recruited to host the Friday Night Project with Justin Lee Collins, inset, later becoming Jonathan Ross’s warm-up man on his Friday night show and making TV appearances on Live At The Apollo and at the Royal Variety Show.

In just three years he has gone from virtual unknown to comedian of the moment, counting Peter Kay, Sir Paul McCartney and Kylie Minogue among his fans. And he’s still only 32.

“With me, what you see is what you get. I haven’t really got a dark side. If people are expecting 'My heroin shame' they’re going to be very disappointed,” he quips in that hilariously camp voice.

After moving from Manchester to north London to cut down on travelling, he now works from home and is easily distracted.

“The jokes come, but it’s a bit like being constipated really. If I keep pushing, something will come out. A lot of the time it’s really depressing. You just sit in front of the mirror going, 'La, la, la'.”

Carr’s father, Graham, was a football manager, most notably of Northampton FC, and had great expectations for his son.

Alan frankly admits that he hated sport from day one, but his peers expected him to be more David Beckham than Danny La Rue on the pitch.

“I was a bit worried I wouldn’t live up to Dad’s expectations but I realise now that other boys’ dads were disappointed with them too,” he reflects.

“I think it’s something in their genes, dads to be disappointed. I made the mistake of thinking it was just me who was the letdown.

Today, however, the tables have turned and his parents are totally proud of him and couldn’t care less about his sexuality, he says.

“I never told my parents I was gay. They don’t give a damn and the reason I’ve never told them is because it’s like closing the door after the horse has bolted.”

After school, he studied drama and theatre studies at Middlesex University, gaining a 2:1.

He was in various productions but was often miscast, he explains, playing roles which were simply too macho for him.

It was only when he signed up for a comedy module on the course and did a gig in a theatre pub in London, which brought the house down, that he realised he had an aptitude for comedy.

But he suffered then — and still does — extreme stage fright, to the extent that he would be sick before a performance, and shake with fear. So he didn’t do comedy for five more years.

But since returning he’s had many more experiences to add to his routine.

“I went and had some colonic irrigation the other day. I have trouble with bloating, to be brutally honest. I got loads of jokes from it.

“I also went for a well-man test. She tested everything and was down below for ages, pulling the same faces I pull when I’m setting the Sky Plus.”

His second series of Celebrity Ding Dong, the tongue-in-cheek TV quiz in which a team of celebrities face a team of members of the public to answer off-the-wall questions, started last Friday.

Alan will be signing copies of Look Who It Is! in Waterstones, Oxford, at 2.30pm on Saturday.