DOC Brown’s appearance at Brierley Hill Civic Hall this Saturday (July 16) is one of only three stand-up gigs he is performing this year – so fans are urged to catch him while they can.

The rapper-turned-comic’s star is very much in the ascendancy – so much so that he is being forced to take a temporary break from regular live performing.

He has a major role in the hotly-tipped new ITV drama Brief Encounters, which is currently being shown on Monday nights and is about a group of women in the 1980s who become Ann Summers party reps.

And next month his face will be all over the big screen when he stars alongside Ricky Gervais in the eagerly-awaited David Brent movie Life On The Road.

In that, Brown will reprise his role in the Comic Relief specials the pair recorded together as a young rapper going on the road with ageing wannabe rocker Brent.

“I’m really excited about both and how people are going to react to them,” he says.

“Brief Encounters is more of a drama than a comedy, although there are laugh out loud moments in every episode.

“My character is a young policeman, Johnny, who has just moved up to Sheffield from London.

“He is a little bit wet behind the ears still and gets involved with a married woman.

“I am looking forward to seeing what people think of it, and of the series as a whole, because it was great to be involved in.

“The movie is out on August 19, it’s always been a big dream of mine to be in a film and now it’s finally about to happen.

“Ricky Gervais has been a huge inspiration and influence for me.

“He has really taken me under his wing. It started off with working with him on Derek, then it was Comic Relief and now this.

“We have written loads of songs together. He is a master at work, he is so confident in his ideas.”

Because of his other commitments, which also include writing children’s books and kid’s TV series, the 38-year-old keen Crystal Palace fan has been forced to take a temporary step-back from stand-up.

It makes his appearance at Brierley Hill Civic Hall all the more important for fans to catch him doing his own unique brand of comedy rap.

“I realised as things were getting so busy on other fronts I couldn’t balance everything,” he says.

“I was spending my days working and then driving off to cities hundreds of miles away doing gigs on the nights.

“I have got a family as well and it was just getting too much so I have decided to focus on one thing at a time.

“So I’m taking a temporary break from stand-up – this will be a very rare opportunity to see me on stage, I think I’m only doing three gigs this year and I’m really looking forward to it.

“The Midlands has long been one of my favourite places to go.

“It started out with Birmingham, and the Glee Club there, and from there I have travelled around the Black Country and Birmingham, places like Wolves, Aston, Edgbaston.

“The sense of humour there seems a little bit more sophisticated, I am not sure what it is, I talked to a couple of my Brummie mates and they say if you are a Brummie you have got to laugh.

“I don’t know if that’s true, but people there seem to get their comedy.”

The Londoner performs a unique fusion of stand-up that sees him rap about unlikely subjects including the right way to make a cup of tea and putting his children to bed.

He said the ideas for songs came from everyday life.

“It’s the same as stand-up really, the only difference is I express it in rap, with the jokes in between the rhymes.

“It’s the natural way for me to express it, and I suppose it’s the incongruous nature of the things I rap about that make it funny.

“But it’s not a gimmick, as some people have said, it’s just who I am and what I do.”

For more information about Live At The Civic, or to book tickets costing £18.50, visit www.bhillcivic.co.uk/whats-on/comedy, or call the box office on 0870 320 7000.