IF there's a secret to surviving six decades in the notoriously fickle world of showbusiness, Des O'Connor, currently on tour with his one-man show, has clearly found it.

And it's hard to resist the feeling that his career's longevity is down to his determination to see the funny side of life and a refusal to take himself too seriously. As he says, years of 'verbal torpedoes' launched at him by Morecambe and Wise were 'very helpful' in that respect, though his mother wasn't too impressed. "And no matter what Eric said, I sing pretty good."

Des's life on stage began when he went into the air force. "I was always clowning around and one day I was doing an impression of the commanding officer. When I turned round he was standing there: "Very funny O'Connor, he said, but everybody should see it." He ordered me to enter an upcoming talent contest, which I won and that was the start." Des is convinced that there are plenty of people like him, office clowns who make everyone laugh but who are inhibited by fear from trying to make people other than friends laugh.

In addition to the 22 tour dates, Des is also writing his second book of comic poems and a novel, and reveals that, despite having celebrated his 80th birthday, he's not thinking of stopping any time soon.

"I'll only stop when people stop coming to the show, or stop buying the books and the records."

The show, which he brings to Hereford on Sunday, May 17 and to Malvern Theatres in July, is never the same two nights running. "I deliberately keep the first half very loose," he says. "I'll just stroll on and start talking to the audience - on one occasion when I asked if they had any problems they'd like to share, a woman declared that 'her husband wouldn't do what he should', which called for some quick thinking.

"I don't call it a show, I call it a happening, it's a little party. I love to let it just happen," he adds. "The humour comes from what happens. I used to worry about what do do, but now I just think 'let's get on and do it'. And I love it when husbands say, 'I didn't want to come, but actually you were all right'.

"I don't tell the same jokes - if I did, I'd pack it up and do a proper job, but what I am doing is better than work."

Spontaneity is key, whatever he's doing. When presenting Des and Mel, Mel Sykes was aghast at not having an earpiece, "I told her I'd said she shouldn't have one," and two years ago, playing the Wizard of Oz, he ad libbed a new line when he tripped on the Yellow Brick Road and brought the house down. "Andrew Lloyd Webber was out front and afterwards he said I should keep it in," he recalls, adding that he refused to do so, recognising that the laughs came from the fact that it was so obviously an unscripted moment. "People are much more intelligent than we give them credit for, he says, going on to reveal that while there is one plant in the show, "I tell the audience".

"It's good for your own soul," he believes. "They can see you're having fun, and they know it's going to be a fun evening.

"Life is funny, and you have to see that."

Des O'Connor is at The Courtyard on Saturday, May 17. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk