Before she became a stand-up Janey Godley ran a pub for 15 years in the East End of Glasgow. To some extent it served as a useful training ground: 'I developed a good sharp sense of humour and, as I later realised, a good degree of crowd control.’ And, coincidentally, back in 1983, one of her brother's mates brought a young guy into the bar who, she was told, 'did magic and funny stuff’. For several months Godley had him perform there every Sunday. His name was Jerry Sadowitz: 'It was groundbreaking in its time. Genuinely funny and very political.’ The pub had a few gangsters among its regular clientele: 'Their eyes would light up at the magic. Gangsters love magic!'

Godley first dabbled briefly with stand-up in 1992 - a man called her one day ('and I still don't know who he was') and suggested she take part in a ‘Gong'-style show at Glasgow's Tron Theatre: 'I went along and told a few anecdotes and screamed at the talkers. I won the thing! It scared me to death.' Four years later, after she'd sold the bar, Godley started to perform again at open mic nights. She reckons the continual exposure to Sadowitz way back then might have had some influence: 'When I started out, I was really aggressive and very rude. I’ve calmed down a lot since then. Early on one promoter told me she gave me a gig because she was scared of me.'

Nowadays Godley plays clubs in the north and elsewhere in the country more than she does Scotland, though her visits to London are still fairly rare. She's played Holland, New Zealand and New York. 'It took me a while to find my feet,' she says. 'I was always more of a storyteller than a gag merchant.' One night, after a London gig, Stewart Lee underlined the point by telling Godley the true stories she told were a lot better than her gags. After that the stories about her life became the mainstay of her stand-up. She now sees it as a potential weakness as well as a strength: 'Because I do longer stories, it's hard to impress an audience in 15 minutes when what they want is a gag merchant.’

The autobiographical elements she draws on in her stories resemble no other life you'll know. As a child, from the age of five to 12, she was sexually abused by an uncle. Her mother- an alcoholic - was murdered and the body was thrown in the Clyde. She's seen people around her die of AIDS. This is not the normal currency of observational comedy. As she's said on more than one occasion, she’s made death, child abuse and domestic violence funny.

Godley's in London for the next few days. What should we expect? ‘I’ll be talking about trying to write my autobiography, but at the same time trying not to divulge any real crimes and not get any family members imprisoned for old ones! Among other things.' As she works on her full-length solo show for the Edinburgh Fringe, the other things are likely to include 'true tales and handy hints on how to get rid of guns and explosives from your backyard and white goods from around the kitchen'.

That's nowhere near all of it. On a lighter note, Godley plans to talk about punching nuns for Jesus: 'I reckon, if you punch five nuns over the age of 72, you're sure to hurt three who've beaten unmarried mothers and orphans in a workhouse in the 1960s. Jesus will be happy you did that.' Listen out too for the account of how Godley wiped Rachel Weisz's bum in a showbiz toilet while a fellow star looked on.

Does she wish her life had been very different? ‘l can't really imagine what it would have been like not to have had that past. Maybe if I'd had a Sally Sunshine childhood, I'd be a housewife and secretary of the local council. Living a very full life, baking and walking dogs. Which is no bad thing. But not for me.'