I was out gigging every night and turning up to the office every morning," he recalls "But I never thought about making it I was just happy playing small clubs and hanging out It was the coolest thing. I couldn't have been happier."It was two years before Carr got his break. "I had a really good Edinburgh Festival in 2002 - I'd sold out a one-hour show - and I got asked to do this Peter Cook tribute gig. Most nights at a club on the circuit will involve "loads of really drunk, laddish blokes. After they've seen a load of white male comics, this Asian Muslim woman comes on, and I normally get a lot of heckling.

But if I deal with it well, then they really love it."Mirza's star is obviously rising. She is just about to embark on a tour of America, and has recently sold out shows in Denmark, Germany and Belgium. Unlike many circuit comedians, Mirza is unrepentantly ambitious: "I want to do the 1,000- or 2,000-seater theatre tours I want to do films I want to do a lot of different, groundbreaking things. I don't want to be a jobbing comic who does the circuit every night.

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That's OK for some people, but not for me."The Sensation: Jimmy CarrIt's mid-afternoon, and Jimmy Carr is driving to The Dorchester hotel to meet Kelly Osbourne for tea and "maybe have a pedicure". Otherwise it's just so easy to go backwards," she says, although her description of a typical night leaves one slightly baffled as to why. Open mikes, exclusively black audiences, exclusively gay audiences Anything. After a while, most of the gigs were like Jongleurs - proper circuit gigs - but I'll still do any and every gig. I gig every night."Like so many comedians, Mirza is utterly addicted to performing "I have to be on stage every night. Hands hasn't made it through to the next round, but it hasn't dented his confidence "A gig's only the price of a phone call away I just keep phoning, phoning.