When it comes to being a comedian, Romesh Ranganathan has the perfect face for a maths teacher.

Perhaps it was spending eight years trying to explain the Pythagoras theorem, that left the Apprentice star with his trademark bland stare.

Even his voice sounds like he is giving a lecture on how to calculate the volume of an isosceles triangle.

Still, Romesh’s deadpan look has not stopped him from becoming one of the hottest young comics on the club and TV circuit. He’s currently in the middle of a sell-out UK tour which brings him to the Brewhouse next month and several small screen shows are already in the pipeline.

In fact, Romesh is surprised himself that someone who looks so ordinary can go on stage and leave audiences rolling in the aisles.

“The problem is that I don’t have a face that ever looks like I’m enjoying anything. It doesn’t mean I’m not, it’s just my face. Even my voice sounds like I’m not having a good time,” he says.

“If I go to watch a stand-up, I feel like going up to the performers and apologising to them because of how I look. I want to say ‘sorry about this, but I really did enjoy the show.’

Romesh taught maths for eight years, a job he loved and which gave him and his wife security. However, when he started doing small spots around local club, he realised teaching might not be his life-long career.

“I had always loved stand up comedy. In fact my first gig was as an 8 year-old at Pontin’s Holiday Camp, in a talent competition.

“I also loved teaching and just started stand up as a hobby. As it started to take off, I felt enormous pressure. My wife has been an amazing support, encouraging me to try stand-up. We had some really difficult times and couldn’t pay all our bills.

“One time, the road tax on my car was due but I didn’t have any money so I told my wife I’d pay it as soon as I could. Then I came home one day and my car had been impounded. I couldn’t afford the recovery fee so I told my wife, ‘we don’t have a car anymore.’

“I’m a bit of an armchair feminist. I don’t think women should do all the cooking and cleaning, but in my house that’s what happens. With my son starting school I told my wife I was going to choose his school so at least I could feel like I was doing something.

“I hope to be fabulously wealthy one day and have a real bad attitude the sort really rich people have. I don’t have the money yet but I’m working on the attitude.”

Ranganathan is one of a growing group of comics achieving success at all levels. After his debut Fringe show Rom Com earned him an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination for best newcomer last year, he found himself doing the rounds of comedy shows such as Live at The Apollo and the Jonathan Ross Show.

“For the first two years as a stand-up, I used to get gut-wrenchingly nervous but that’s stopped,” he adds.

“I think my indifferent looking face helped because it gives the impression that I’m a lot calmer underneath than I really am. I think if you look and act confident, you’ll bring the audience with you.

“I usually stick to my routine but maybe something will happen that day or during the show and I bring that in.

“There’s a downside to touring, of course. After the buzz of being on stage, there’s the gloom and emptiness of a small hotel room and an unhealthy snack from a service station. That’s showbusiness.”

Do people always expect him to be funny when they meet him? “Stand ups are either hilarious, socially awkward freaks, or both. My brother is more the life and soul when we all go out, but he’s funny in an obvious pathetic, better looking and younger way, whereas I’m funny in a more, less attractive, less-loved by my parents

way.”

Last year saw Romesh become a regular guest on The Apprentice, You’re Fired, It was a dream come true he explains.

“’As a massive fan of The Apprentice, it was incredibly exciting to be asked to do it.

‘’I love You’re Fired and enjoyed putting all the questions to the candidates that people at home want to see asked. I also have a number of business proposals of my own that I think Lord Sugar will be pretty interested in.’’

While he has become hot property, his wife is doing her best to keep his feet on the ground.

“She is horrendous for feedback,” he says.

“I’d come off stage and she’d say: ‘You walk around too much, you touch your glasses too much, you keep saying erm...’”

“When it comes to material she’s one of the worst. If she says something is funny it’s usually very obvious and I can’t use it. If she doesn’t get something she tends to say: ‘ I’m sure people who like you will like that’.

With a sell-out show at The Brewhouse, it seems people really do like that.