WHILE many comedians pride themselves on being as offensive as possible to get laughs, writer and stand-up comic Dominic Holland is more interested in making people happy.

"I like cynical comedy if it's done very well - I think Bill Hicks could do it very well, but if people do it badly then it's jarring and it doesn't really ring true with me," he says.

"My comedy has no agenda at all it's an entertainment. I just want to make people laugh and make sure they have a good time."

And the same goes for his writing.

"It's a very life affirming book," he says of his latest novel, The Ripple Effect.

"It's very much a fairy tale about saving a local town. It's basically about a guy who's trying to save his town's football club from asset-strippers. The town's baker gets so angry that he doesn't put any jam in the jam donuts and this one little donut comes to London down from Cheshire and it sets off a ripple of anger that gets bigger and bigger and consumes the whole country and eventually the donut comes full circle and saves the day. So its very euphoric and has a moral to it, it's an anti-homogenisation story."

Dominic is the first to admit that promoting his writing is a major factor in his current stand-up tour.

"I'm trying to get a book going and hopefully if people like the show, I can find a way of spreading the word and build from there," he says. "I wouldn't give up ever on my stand up, but I think my novels are better than my stand up."

Although Dominic enjoys stand-up

comedy, in writing comic novels he has found a vocation that he really loves.

"I hoped it would be something I could make a career out of as I so enjoyed doing it," he says.

" It's obviously very competitive, though, and I didn't realise quite how competitive it is. You have to work hard doing tours and promoting the books and it's enormously demanding. I work harder after I've finished the book than I do writing it. But I really have enjoyed writing books so I'll certainly keep doing it."

Although Dominic's stand-up routines and writing both involve comedy, the creative process is very different for each of them.

"Your well of creativity has a finite resource and eventually it will run out of stuff. For example, Grisham's best books were written when he first started. But I'm not worried about that yet because I'm full of ideas," he says.

"I don't think you can contrive material. In terms of writing stand up comedy, I just don't think you can force it. My stand-up routines have usually been a flash of inspiration. I try to vary the show every night to keep it fresh as I bore quickly.

"But it's different with writing because I can only write a novel with a very structured story.

"For example, I couldn't start another book without a clear formulated story line. But novel writing is still exciting, more so than stand-up because I've been doing that for 15 years."

In those 15 years, Dominic has become a familiar face to comedy fans, but he sometimes misses the early days when he was doing support gigs in the backs of pubs.

"I loved those days when no one knew me, as there was no pressure and no one expected anything from me but now people will come along and they expect a certain standard," he says.

" I don't particularly enjoy pressure and I think it would be nice to start again. Plus, if I started again with all my experience now I'd make it in two years!"

Dominic Holland is at the Quay Arts Centre, Newport, Isle of Wight, 4 July. For tickets and more information, call 01983 528825.