Dara O’Briain brings his Crowd Tickler tour to the Cambridge Corn Exchange next month and The Hunts Post has one pair of tickets to give away.

It has been three years since Dara O’Briain last hit the road after a spell away making television shows such as Mock the Week, The Apprentice: You’re Fired! and Star Gazing Live. He returns to his first love: live comedy and as he prepares for the 65-date tour he says he couldn’t be happier about it.

“The other day, I sat in an empty theatre thinking, ‘I just love these rooms.’ I’m on the board of the Theatres Trust in order to protect these wonderful buildings. It’s not about nimbyism; it’s because I adore these places. It still gives me such a thrill to walk on stage.”

“When you arrive at an empty theatre, the potential is immense. You think, ‘this is going to be magical’,”

The 42-year-old, who is married with two children, adds that his improvised riffing with the audience creates, “a tremendous frisson”. “It’s like walking a tightrope. The audience love it because they can see you’ve got nothing up your sleeve and that things could very easily go wrong. They realise that this could go anywhere. You’re not given any easy ride,” he explained.

The comic is also a graduate from University College Dublin in mathematics and theoretical physics who has drawn on that background to present such TV shows as Dara O’Briain: School of Hard Sums and Dara O’Briain’s Science Club.

Dara outlined the themes that he will be discussing in the Crowd Tickler show.

“I’ll be talking about the awkward conversations we will have about grandchildren, about all the resources we’ve used up and all the wonderful advances we’ve casually wasted, like Concorde and the space shuttle.”

The comedian will also be tackling the subject of a therapist who is leading a campaign to remove fluoride from the water in Ireland because she thinks it’s poisoning the nation.

To be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets for the first night of the tour on October 2, answer this question.

How many children does Dara O’Briain have?

Answers on a postcard to: The Hunts Post, 30 High Street, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE29 3TB or email: competitions@huntspost.co.uk. Deadline for entries is September 25.

Details of the Crowd Tickler tour can be found at www.offthekerb.co.uk.

Tickets for the shows on October 2/3 are £25.50 and available from the corn exchange box office on 01223 357851.