“I like performing where people are having a good time and it’s easy to be heard, and there stands to be a good raucous time after the show,” Reginald D Hunter says in his beautiful Southern drawl.

Cambridge is to be put to this litmus test when the London-based comedian stops off at the Corn Exchange on his 14-date-tour, The Man Who Knew As Much As Such.

Why the title? “I was doing a lot of thangs at the same time, on and off stage,” Hunter explains. “I was shovelling bombs and they were all attempts, until one day my agent called me, gave me a deadline.”

The enigmatic explanation is indicative of Hunter’s charm and unusual honesty. Born in Georgia in 1969, he moved to London in 1997, returning recently to the southern states in his BBC2 three-part series, ‘Songs of the South’, which maps his travels from North Carolina to New Orleans and through 150 years of American music history.

“We filmed it last summer. I was around the parts of the South that when I was living there I would never think of staying.

“I was showing up in these places with these white folk from the BBC, and I was the one with sunburn! Normally when I’m home in the South I don’t drive around in a convertible,” he adds wryly.

A RADA trained actor, Hunter first tried stand-up as a dare, in a bar in Birmingham, where he lived for a number of years.

“When there’s not a whole lot going on in your life you can be more open-minded,” he muses, ever honest.

While Hunter has made a resounding name for himself in comedy, a regular on panel shows and a sell-out wherever he goes, stand-up is not his only calling.

Would he consider acting again? “Hell yes!,” is his immediate reaction. “I imagine I’d like to perform in some kind of dramatic comedy,” he added, giving no more away.

Known for his refreshing honesty on race matters, Hunter does not stop short on voicing his take on the North/South divide in Britain.

“They have this eternal nationalistic snobbery, my friends in London think anywhere north of Luton is a socio-economic Chernobyl.”

Reginald D Hunter will be performing at Cambridge Corn Exchange on Saturday, May 2, at 8pm. Tickets are priced at £26.50 and are available from cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/cornex.