CHARLIE Baker is very relaxed for a man whose first stint in the West End closed after just six weeks. But then the Wallingford comedian was quite happy as a stand-up thank you very much when he was swooped on by Harry Hill and his merry men for a high-fallutin’ stint in I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical. A bit of a whirlwind then?

“We got a standing ovation and then the producers came out and told us it was closing in two weeks and if SYCO productions can’t make it work then no one can.”

So what went wrong? “I honestly don’t know because it was really funny and we thought it was going really well. We had nine weeks of rehearsals, six weeks of opening and that was that. We still don’t know what happened because we had really good reviews and it was funny and original.”

Charlie played the hunchback and the leprechaun, “well that’s pure Harry Hill isn’t it”, losing two stone with all the dancing and singing involved, but delighted to have won the role after being spotted at his sell-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe last year.

But now it’s all over he’s fairly nonplussed: “Well I’ve always been a stand-up so it’s easy for me to go back to doing what I love best.

“But for everyone else, the cast and all those people working backstage, what are they going to do?” he asked. “I had a job, a trade, for me it was fine, but for lots of people I Can’t Sing! was the dream and paid the bills.”

That’s showbusiness. Phoning up his agent immediately, Charlie had a full tour arranged within a week, including a local gig at Didcot’s Cornerstone arts centre last month.

“I’m good at making people laugh. It’s my calling. And we seem to winning them over,” Charlie said cheerfully. “It’s like channelling your inner chimp. You put your funny persona on stage.”

Based around the biggest selling UK singles from each of the last 13 years, Charlie sings the worst of the bunch in Baker’s Dozen, from Bob the Builder to Poker Face via Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me, with his personal brand of comedy in between.

“I sat and thought about Baker’s Dozen for a month — how each song works and why, writing material about my life for each song, and ended up with two hours to play with, so had to cut it down to one golden hour.”

The novel show, first performed at Edinburgh, sold out last year, and has been wowing audiences across the country ever since.

“Selling out in Edinburgh was like nothing I’ve ever felt. It was the best moment of my life because people could relate to it, but you don’t know until you get there if they will or if they’ll think it’s awful because comedy is like bringing everything into your life in one act, which is why I sing and dance too.

“It’s like a calling, it’s that evangelical, and when you get it right it’s absolutely amazing. I love it. But you have to be very aware of your failures and make fun of yourself by turning your negative experiences into positive ones because if they can be funny on stage, everyone can relate to your scrapes.”

Having moved to Wallingford seven years ago from London with his wife and son, Charlie loves Oxfordshire.

“We lived in a flat in Maida Vale above a Chinese restaurant and the smell of the fish they cooked on Sunday was so awful . . . well, we just weren’t enjoying it, and we wanted to find the right mix and a sense of community so moved to Wallingford. We love it there. It feels like home and just like where I grew up in Devon with a big sky. We will be here for a long time,” he said.

A contented man then? “My wife knows I have to do this to be happy, even though she’s funnier than me. I try out all my new material on her and if she doesn’t get it, I don’t do it.

“But apart from that I don’t really care what other people think because this is the show I want to do, to mix music with comedy, and it’s the best job in the world.”