Who does he think he is, Milan Kundera? From the friendly and fluffy Seanie of five years ago to the sinister and serious Lenny Bruce wannabe of today, Sean Hughes has undergone an image change that would put the British Labour Party in the shade.
If it is, as he says, "New Sean, new danger", here's the why, where and how: "I got really tired of playing to hysterical 14-yearold girls and really tired of telling stupid `jokes'. I wanted a broader canvas to work on so two years ago at the Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny I started to do really dark, threatening and `adult' material to kill off the teenybop fans and appeal more to my peer group, and now I've written a serious novel which I hope will sever the link with the past completely.
"I hated the fame that I had, I hated being recognised and stopped in the street. I despise anything to do with celebritydom," says Hughes as he sits on the grass in the middle of the Edinburgh Book Festival, oblivious to the irony of the fact that the interview is being held up every now and again as he stops to sign autographs and pose for pictures with excited fans who look at him suspiciously when he mentions he has a new book out and insist on asking him when he's going to be back on Channel 4 doing his startled-rabbit impersonation.
It's very much a tale of two Edinburghs for Sean Hughes: by day he's at the book festival, giving talks, taking part in question-and-answer sessions and doing more book signings than is good for a person. At night he swaps his daytime black clothes for a different set of black clothes and heads back to the Fringe where's he putting on his new one-man show, Alibis For Life. The only constant in his two professional lives is that strange look in his eyes which seems to beseech both book-readers and comic audiences to "take me seriously, I want to be an artist".
Sure don't we all, Sean.
The comedian formerly known as Seanie now wants to be stocked on the bookshelves in between Martin Amis and Will Self as S. Hughes. As a first time novelist, he really needs to brush up on his interview technique if he wants to be taken seriously as a writer: tell us about your literary influences then?
"Emm, Milan Kundera and Iain Banks and eh, I suppose Beckett and Camus and people like that."
How autobiographical is the novel? "It's not really."
But the main character is a single, white, successful male who is named after you, is the same age as you, has the same musical taste as you, and the same emotional moods as you? "Well, I never really looked at it like that."
The book, The Detainees, is an ambitious contemporary novel set in Dublin, which deals with the theme of how childhood bullying scars a person for life. The main character, John, (which is Sean's real name) finds his life in turmoil when his childhood tormentor, Red, arrives back in Dublin after a long period in the US and starts to make moves on John's wife. Throw in a lot of casual drug use, some hot 'n' heavy sex scenes ("my dad says it's verging on the pornographic," he laughs), a sub-plot involving the Dublin criminal underworld and a few references to Radiohead and you're looking at a novel that potentially could be the making or breaking of him.
Bullying? Discuss in relation to yourself: "Well, I suppose I was to a certain extent. I grew up in Firhouse in Dublin (or Templeogue West as some people refer to it) and there was all the usual gang stuff with me being the butt of some incidents. The character of Red is actually a composite of different people and I suppose there is a bit of trying to resolve the conflict in there, but then I think there's part of me in all the characters in the book.
"I had a very anxious time writing the book because whenever the main character, John was having a panic or crisis about things in his past life or his present life I had to dig deep inside myself to remember how I felt as a young person in Firhouse and re-living some of those experiences actually brought on anxiety attacks. It was quite frightening at times," he says.
At an initial level, was it difficult to persuade the publishing company to let you write a "serious" novel? "I think people in the publishing world knew which way my stand-up was going and knew I was capable of tackling more mature, adult themes, and of course I've brought out two compilation books before of poems and prose (Sean's Book and The Grey Area) so that was a help. In the end there was a chase between two different publishers and I took the better offer."
You know literary critics don't like comics writing books (to say the least) and people such as Hugh Laurie, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry and Ben Elton had to battle hard, with differing degrees of success, to be accepted? "I know there's going to be a certain amount of `who does he think he is, writing a book?' But I'm ready for that and two things keep me going - my need to express myself on a broader canvas than stand-up comedy, and the fact that I'm really proud of this book and I wouldn't have let it be published unless I was."
The book is a brave move, not least because of the fact that apparently for the first time in his professional life he is under pressure.
Back in 1990 when he became the youngest winner of the Perrier Prize, he could do no wrong. He was on the front cover of every second magazine, he had his own three-million-viewer sitcom on Channel 4, he made programmes for the BBC and he toured the world with his Perrier show. He was indulged so much that he was even let bring out a book of his poems.
When the fame kicked in and he found he couldn't travel on the Tube in London (where he lives) he took an allergic reaction to it, and not wanting to end up on the Des O'Connor show or Celebrity Squares, he took an axe to his career, stopped working, went underground and contented himself with listening to Bill Hicks tapes over and over again.
"Bill Hicks (the legendary US comic who died in 1993 and was a friend of Sean's) taught me to be more honest with myself, to stop doing silly comedy routines about cats and dogs and to confront issues like relationships and sex. The main theme in my new stand-up show is the whole issue of my pathological unwillingness to commit myself to a relationship with any other person on this planet. I talk a lot about how the choice for me seems to be either tolerating a less-than-perfect relationship or loneliness. There is a lot of neurosis in there . . ."
Over the last few years other young pretenders have sneaked up and relieved him of the title of King of Irish Comedy. The BAFTA award-winning team of Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan pulled in more ratings for their Father Ted show ("it's a mainstream success" he says of the show), comic Ardal O'Hanlon became a serious rival on the comedy circuit - and last year fellow countryman Dylan Moran knocked Sean off his perch of youngest winner of the Perrier by winning the award when he was just 24 ("I think Dylan Moran is more of a literary type in stand-up than I am, he's quite surreal and ideas-based. I've never seen his full show but I've liked the small bits I've seen.")
With only an hour to go before he's due on stage, he visibly begins to shed his Sean Hughes writer persona and adopts his Sean Hughes comedian persona and the contradiction at the centre of his professional life becomes even more apparent. He wants to be on the Fringe doing shows and plugging his book but he also wants his anonymity back. He wants to be respected for what he does but only from intelligent and informed quarters, not giggling and blushing 14-year-old girls.
He wants people to laugh. But not all the time.
The Detainees (Simon and Schuster, £12.99 sterling) is published on September 2nd. Alibis For Life will be touring in Ireland later this year