GUITAR-toting funnyman Mitch Benn - star of umpteen Radio 4 shows, darling of the Edinburgh Fringe and Glastonbury favourite - hits the road on Saturday for a tour that kicks off at Wimborne's Tivoli Theatre.

Called Mitch Benn and The Distractions, it finds Benn and the two girls he cheerily refers to as "my band" (drummer Tash Baylis and bass and keyboards player Kirsty Newton) dishing out some quality sounds along with the humour.

I caught up with Benn as he prepared for this latest jaunt around the UK.

It is clear that he's not just another comedian who sings a song or two. Mitch Benn takes his music very seriously indeed.

In fact, when I suggested that he's a frustrated rock 'n' roller he pointed out that he's been doing music for a lot longer than he's been doing comedy.

It's an interesting situation because he's probably best known as a satirist on Radio 4 shows like It's Been A Bad Week and The Now Show. Recently though, he was allowed to flex his musical muscles a bit more with his very own show, Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music. It was so successful that the BBC has already commissioned a second series.

As a marketing tool, the power of national radio is enormous and Benn finds it reassuring to calculate that if only one in every 2,000 of his listeners

pitches up at his live shows the tour would be a sell-out.

The other advantage to radio is that despite being well over six feet tall and built like a brick out-house Benn can walk the streets unrecognised.

"I rather like that, although it does make it quite difficult to gauge exactly how popular you are."

He relies largely on feedback from the internet, inviting fans to e-mail comments on his website. Most are packed with fulsome praise but occasionally he gets a snotty one.

"I know it's pathetic and I ought to rise above it but if I really don't agree with what they're saying I sit down and e-mail straight back to them.

"Usually they're so surprised to actually get a reply from me in person that they immediately start apologising."

Mitch Benn and The Distractions play The Tivoli at Wimborne on Saturday (01202 885566). They will be at The Forest Arts Centre at New Milton on Saturday, Nov 25 (01425 612393).