NOBODY knows who Robert Davis is, including Bob himself. That's because ever since the age of nine he has been known as Jasper and a few years after that he added the Carrott.

Even his wife and family call him Jasper at home.

"Some people try and be clever and call me Bob, but I just don't register," said Carrott.

"No one has ever called me Bob. My mum used to call me Roy because that was my brother's name and you know what mums are like.

"Ever since I was nine everybody called me Jasper and then, when I was 17, the Carrott got added.

"I have absolutely no idea where the name came from. I've tried to come up with a funny reason, but I genuinely have no idea where it came from."

No doubt the name change was a good career move because it seems unlikely that people would be buying tickets by the thousand to see Bob Davis perform stand-up at Birmingham's Carling Academy, aka the NIA.

That's right, Carrott's back on home turf with a show just for his fellow Midlanders.

The show is going to be a sort of Carrott's greatest hits because with every ticket sold there is a checklist for people to request their favourite sketch from the comedian's 25 years in the biz.

Examples of Carrott's gold include everything from his car insurance sketch, with genuine insurance claims that beggar belief, to his extreme line in mole eradication, ("the only way to get rid of a mole is to blow its bloody head off").

"I had this thought in the back of my mind that I had all this material people under 40 had never heard," said Carrott.

"And the people over 40 wouldn't be able to remember they had heard it, with Complan dribbling out of the side of their mouths.

"But when I put it all together I had about 30 hours of material. So what I've done is got people who are coming to the show to tell me what they want to hear.

"It means every night is different and I've got to be on my toes.

"You might not laugh as much when you hear a joke a second time, but I don't do jokes, I do sketches. I've also gone back to all of them to make them fresh and add the benefit of 25 years' extra experience.

"What is very sad is that I've been going through the old stuff and I've been hooting with laughter."

It is with some satisfaction that Carrott points out that ticket sales are flying, which is not unsurprising considering he was recently ranked alongside Shakespeare, Elgar and AE Houseman in a BBC poll to find the greatest Midlander.

"I thought Shakespeare would just walk it," said the comedian.

"But when I saw Ozzy Osbourne was in there, I thought 'hang on a bit'.

"They had a similar thing in Liverpool and Ken Dodd won. And they've got all those people like Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

"It's all a bit of fun and I'm not taking it too seriously.

"But I'm the only one who could pick up the award. Ozzy is the only one who's still alive and he probably can't remember where the Midlands is."

The nomination as greatest ever Midlander follows Carrott's OBE in this New Year's Honours list.

"It was for my charity work, which is important to me, but isn't very high profile," he said.

"Well, it wasn't going to be for my comedy, was it?

"I got this letter in the post in November which said, if you want an OBE tick this box.

"I thought it would be a nice day out."

And it did turn out to be a proper "Brummie day out" beginning at the palace and ending in a Balti house in Solihull.

"The Queen said to me, "do you do a lot of charity work?' and I thought, 'well you've just given me a bleeding gong for it!'"

In any event, the ceremony was probably the last time anyone called him Robert Davis.

Jasper Carrott will be at the NIA Academy from Saturday, January 4, with the number of nights depending on ticket sales. Tickets are available from the box office on 0870 010 9028.