ONE THING that strikes you when chatting to award winning comedian Jo Caulfield is that she likes a good laugh, but is also serious about the comedy business.

“If you’re a musician you can practise at home for years then you can go out,”Jo reasons. “But as a comedian you have to learn in front of a paying audience.

So I think it’s right people don’t give you a paid job until you know what you’re doing. It’s like an apprenticeship with anything.

It’s quite an arrogant thing to put yourself up in front of people and say ‘you sit up and listen to me’ so you should be good. If I’m sitting in the audience I want them to be good.”

Well known for her appearances on TV and radio, Jo thought comedy would be good as a career path when watching her hero Dave Allen as a youngster.

She is on tour with her new show, Better The Devil You Know which comes to  Cardiff in December. Jo has found touring has given her what she describes as “retired person’s days out” and enjoys familiarising herself with the venue’s area before shows. “I’ll have a wander around the shops, I’ll go for a tea somewhere and get a feel for the place,” she says. “The more I can have to say from my point of view about what I think of the audience’s place is always fun.”

Jo’s approach to performing helps her get input from her audiences, an input which to a degree helped inspire her new show Better The Devil You Know which came about as a result of a conversation with a member of the audience. On this occasion Jo who had married her husband in a $5 New York wedding ceremony a decade ago discovered she wasn’t legally married.”

“I found out just talking to a woman in the audience that we were meant to register our marriage when we got back to the UK and we didn’t and she said ‘you’re not legally married’ so instead of celebrating 10 years of been legally married we’ve been single for 10 years.” Jo Continues: “Its good fun with the audience in saying ‘Well think about your partner, if you can go back in time would you choose them?’”

Jo who is also busying herself with other projects including writing a book, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is looking forward to her first Welsh dates, particularly as she was born in St Asaph.

“It’s on my passport” she laughs.

  • Jo will be at the Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff, on December 7.

Contact the box office 29 2031 1050 for details.