LENNY Henry can't wait to see you at the Grand Opera House in York next Friday.

He has been away from the live arena for a while making television programmes, but now he is returning to his first love on his Where You From? Tour, and the prospect is making him beam with delight.

"Nothing beats the buzz of live comedy; it gives you the instant feedback of approval. Comedians crave that; it's the 'mummy, look at me' syndrome, " says the 6ft 3in gentle giant. "There's nothing like a wave of laughter to affirm you. For a comedian, the audience is the ultimate test of whether or not the material is working."

Recalling his past two stage shows, Have You Seen This Man? and So Much Things To Say, Lenny expands on why he is so passionate about stand-up.

"When you're on stage, you have this wonderfully exciting knowledge that you've got something up your sleeve that will have the audience on the floor, " he says.

"They don't know it yet, but in the next minute you're going to say something that will make them squirt milk out of their nose. In that weird part of the brain where cabbies store The Knowledge, comedians keep stuff that will make audiences behave in a very strange way and start falling over."

Lenny, who found fame when he won New Faces as a 16-year-old in 1975, reckons that the communal feeling of being huddled together in a darkened auditorium encourages audiences to enjoy themselves.

"Eric Idle has called the experience of laughing at live comedy 'barking at the darkness'. I like that. People laugh with such abandon in a theatre because they feel protected by the darkness, " he says.

"When directors suggest putting the lights on the audience, I always say, 'don't!' People never laugh as much when the lights are on.

Like sex, comedy is better with the lights off - with a tiny torch, a pot of peanut butter and a meerkat!"

Promising new material that "really puts a firework up your ****!", Lenny reveals that the themes of Where You From? will be tied in with a new documentary series he has been filming for BBC1.

In Lenny's Britain, he tours the country in an attempt to construct a comedy map of the UK. Is Birmingham funnier than Glasgow and are more laughs to be had in London than in Belfast?

"Apparently the funniest accent in which to tell a joke is Midlands. I'm not saying anything, " says the Dudley-born comic. "All I know is that Jasper Carrot is smiling like a mother now!"

In the series, to be transmitted later this year, Lenny will be telling tales from his road-trip around Britain.

Along the way, he tried out various jobs to see how work affects our humour. "I worked on the South Pier at Blackpool, selling donuts and operating the Waltzer - 'when the light flickers, hold on to your knickers!' A lot of people will be saying these are the jobs that I should be doing!"

He also worked in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow, a Blackpool hotel and at a Dudley nursing home called Henry Court.

"It's named after my mum. I spent a day there with the elderly residents, chopping vegetables and getting the old people to their prayer meetings and embroidery classes. It was a very joyful and moving experience, " he says.

Making the television show was a profound experience. "The idea was to meet people in the way that John Peel used to meet them on Home Truths. So often, they tell you something really personal with a very compassionate sense of humour.

"Throughout the series, I've got to do lots of lifeaffirming things. I've also learned loads. Once you do well in a job, you can get isolated from where you come from, but I feel I've really connected with people on this show. I now know that midwives rock, chambermaids rock and anyone who does a crap job that no one else wants to do rocks."

In Where You From? , Lenny will talk about his teenage jobs as a paper-boy and a beer-glass collector at Dudley Zoo and will revisit characters from the original Lenny Henry Show, such as Mr Lister, The Wolfman and Delbert Wilkins.

He also will tell jokes gathered from the joke booth set up for the public on his Lenny's Britain travels.

"It's been like the country reciprocating. I've been working in comedy for 32 years and now the British public are paying me back, " he says. "They're telling me jokes and making me laugh. I'm loving it."

Lenny Henry, Where You From? , Grand Opera House, York, next Friday, 7.30pm. Tickets update: only 150 left at £22.50; phone 0870 606 3595.