I saw my first ever comedy gig in 1985: Rik Mayall and Ben Elton at the Britannia Pier, Gt Yarmouth. I'd been a comedy fan since I was a kid, but had never seen a live gig. Plus, I was a huge Young Ones fan. It took a month to save the £5 ticket money. I was beyond excited 1/7

My home life was chaotic. Violence, neglect, poverty, petty crime. Culture was non-existent. The one thing that got me through it all, the one thing that was mine was comedy: books, videos, stuff taped off the radio. I was a geek. My friend Duncan came with me to the gig 2/7

We'd gone for Rik: he was the star. Ben wasn't known at this point. But it was Ben who really took that place apart. I was falling in the aisles from laughing. In tears, in pain. Unable to breathe. It was the most I'd ever laughed. The audience were helpless. It was joyous. 3/7

Rik came on and stormed it. A protean genius, able to reduce us to rubble with just a look. I knew then I wanted to be involved in comedy: write, perform, I didn't care. I just knew I had a direction. To top it all, we hung around the stage door and Rik and Ben asked us in. 4/7

They signed autographs, chatted and put up with our fanboy fawning. I left there floating on air, back to the chaos of my life, but feeling like my life had changed. 12 years later, I took my first show to Edinburgh. It started my career & 23 years later, I'm still here. 5/7

There's been ups and downs. But for a kid with nothing, seeing live comedy changed the direction of my life: a gateway to this thing we call the arts. So, to see it struggling so much is tough. Seeing it dismissed and belittled is worse. It's an art form. One of the purest. 6/7

So, for all the future stand-ups, actors, writers, directors, sound operators, lighting crew, stage managers, promoters, agents, venue managers, audiences and, yes, kids like me, looking for a way to express who they are, let's do everything we can to #SaveLiveComedy. Thanks. 7/7