You come across as an amiable but irritating buffoon. I've never been comfortable with the comedian/folk singer combination – for me, it seldom, if ever, works.

So you've never seen Vin Garbutt or Les Barker then. I do think you're being a bit harsh. Though I'll admit that there's often a fine line between the irritating buffoon floor singer who mucks about too much between songs to the annoyance of everybody present, and someone who has genuine, pithy comic timing. For my money, Alan is the right side of that line. Unfortunately, you have to look pretty hard through his promo video to see it, and I don't think most potential bookers would bother. I go back to that ancient Linz video, in which his crowd is absolutely with him. It's a shame it isn't a bit more recent, because in it Alan comes across as thoroughly engaging and convincing. Just a thought: in that video there is loads of footage of the audience having a whale of a time. Surely there's a clue there as to what a promoter needs to see to convince him...