JO CAULFIELD, star of the aptly named Radio 4 show It’s That Jo Caulfield Again, is one of the funniest female comics in the UK.

Between TV appearances on Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and a dazzling array of nominations including Loaded Award’s ‘Funniest Woman’ 2010 and Channel 4’s ‘100 Greatest Stand-Ups’, we caught up with her in New York.

“My first ever gig outside London was Oxford,” Jo says.

”I wrote what I thought would be some crowd-pleasing material about the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, but I was so keyed up and excited I got totally mixed-up and opened my set with: Good evening Cambridge!”

That of course won’t be happening again.

Each show on her new national tour is designed to be unique to that town.

“I love it when the audience joins in,” she says. “I’ll ask them to fill in a form about what’s good and bad about where they live, and at the end of the show I’ll read their comments out.

“I always give the audience a chance to get their moans out in the open.

“You see, I see the show as a celebration of anger... plus I’m thinking of leaving London so I’m using the tour to find a new home and Oxford IS on my shortlist.

“The only drawback is my mother is a huge Inspector Morse fan, so there could be too many visits!

“She does this strange thing though with the Morse books. She starts reading them from the last page, so she knows who did it, but she tries to work out why...”

Feverishly touring the country and living out of a suitcase is a daunting prospect for many but not for Jo Caulfield.

She explains: “I was born to tour. I was born in Wales to Irish parents and brought up in various parts of England. However, as I felt I missed out on Scotland, I married a Scotsman to complete the set.”

So, for a woman who has an opinion – and a unique perspective – on everything, it’s no suprise that she likes to focus on the glue that keeps couples together (mind you, which comedian doesn’t?) “For any single women I’ll be doling out dating advice like: Go on a Fathers For Justice march, you’ll meet plenty of single men who have nothing to do at the weekend,” she says. “Or if you’re married, I’ve got the antidote: next time you send your partner shopping add a couple of items to the list that don’t actually exist. It’ll keep him out of the house a bit longer...”

Jo will also find time to rant about the current economic crisis: “The recession is going to split up a lot of couples. Look at house prices. If your partner’s parent’s house is only worth half as much as it was a year ago, is it still really worth hanging around?”

All of this and more has critics raving: “Caulfield’s hilarious rants on life’s irritations makes her lucid, compulsive viewing. She is, quite simply, a damn funny woman.”

Amen to that.

The Jo Caulfield Won’t Shut Up! tour comes to Oxford’s North Wall Arts Centre on Friday, January 29. For more information, call 01865 319450 or see jocaulfield.com