BEFORE I put down the phone to comedian Sean Hughes I tell him that chatting to him is like chatting away to an old friend.

A little much maybe, but in the space of half an hour we’ve bonded over thoughts on how terrible New Year’s Eve is, driving with a hangover and what it’s like to pay taxes to educate other people’s children.

He tells me: “I’m 48-years-old, I’ve never been married, I’ve never had children, that was the decision I made.

“But the convention of society is that you should do those things and my show Penguins is a bit about that.”

Going with societal convention and trying to make Sean feel less abnormal, I come up with some self-deprecating facts about myself – I’m no spring chicken and also unmarried and childless, I tell him.

I also tell him I’m excited because I’m going on a couples’ ‘date’ that very night to give badminton a go for the first time since secondary school.

“It sounds like an awful date,” he tells me.

No, I insist, honestly, it’s something new, it’ll be great.

“But you don’t sound very enthusiastic about it,” he tells me.

And therein lies the genius of this stand-up turned writer, turned actor, turned podcaster.

He gets to the nub of the issue and draws out the humour by making you laugh at human behaviour by looking at something from a completely different angle.

“It’s got to be my autism that makes me look at things differently,” he says.

“Take New Year’s Eve. At midnight you’re meant to be putting on a full smile, kissing someone and having a wonderful time.

“But in reality you’re queuing up for hours to get a taxi out of Trafalgar Square. Ticketing for the fireworks will never work.

“Fireworks aren’t even enjoyable. They’re good for 40 seconds. What I’d love to do is invite people to a six hour fireworks display and see how much they enjoy it.”

Sean’s Penguins show was awarded the Herald Angels award for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

He said: “It’s a proper show with costume changes. There’s stuff about growing up, sex and relationships.

“I’m using lot of different devices and the show is about a lot of different things.”

Sean, who grew up in Firhouse, Dublin, plans to delve into a copy of the Dorset Echo while he is in Weymouth.

He said: “I love looking at the local papers. I was in Didcot for my last show and was looking at the local paper.

“I love it when they have the court stuff in there with people’s addresses saying ‘this person has been found with £800 worth of cocaine and he lives at Manor Road’, something like that.

“You can just get round there and go and get some drugs if you want, it’s a good advert for them.

“There was another great one in Walthamstow about a fountain that had to be drained dry because a two-year-old nearly drowned in it.

“What about everyone else who wants to enjoy the fountain? There was no-one in there saying how upset they were. The two-year-old didn’t drown and all this money has been wasted and no-one’s upset about it.”

And he’s got plenty to say about politics, with Sean not holding back on his views on the Labour party conference.

“The brother [David Miliband] should have been the one who was the leader.

“And as for this £2m mansion tax, what about people who live in a house and have lived there for 30 years and it’s valued at that much just because it’s in London. I live in London and my own house, which is only three bedroom, could be veering towards that price just because of the area.

“But I live on my own, the only thing I pay my taxes for is my refuse collection.

“My needs aren’t as big as everyone else, I’ve never been in hospital and I’m paying for the education of my neighbour’s children!”

The former Never Mind the Buzzcocks panellist said he doesn’t want to return to TV to do panel shows because he finds them ‘vacuous’.

Instead, he is interested in producing documentaries, having recently made one about the painter Billy Childish.

He’s also busy recording his weekly podcast Under the Radar with comedian guests. I tell him I enjoyed listening to the first half of his most recent one.

“Just the first half, it’s only half an hour long! What have you been doing all morning, Joanna?” he chides.

Having done a headlining set at Weymouth Pavilion earlier this year, Sean tells me he won’t be repeating mistakes from his last visit.

“I was staying at a B&B and they took me to a bar and a mad guy kept asking us to try different cocktails. The next morning I had such a bad headache and I went to Monkey World.

“I had to get back in the car and drove back to London and that was when the hangover started. This time I have a tour manager and I won’t be driving myself so it will not be happening again.”

n Sean Hughes’ Penguins show is at Weymouth Pavilion on Saturday, October 4. See weymouthpavilion.com for ticket details.