CLYDEBANK comic Kevin Bridges shot to fame on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow in 2009 - and is now a megastar. The Hardgate-born stand-up now plays to sell-out crowds across the UK, has starred in his own TV show and saw his live DVD, The Story So Far, shoot to the top of the best-sellers' chart.

As he prepares to launch his second DVD, The Story Continues, we tell the story of the man who's now the biggest thing to come out of Clydebank since the QE2... In part two we look at Kevin's early days on the comedy scene and his big break.

ONE night, at the age of 16, still awake and fretting at 3am, Kevin sent an e-mail to a comedy club in Glasgow, The Stand, asking if he could have one of its open-mic spots. History was made in that wee e-mail.

His dad Andy was with him when he did his first ever live comedy gig - at The Stand - in 2004.

And at first, his parents thought the comedy was a hobby because he had started college, first doing a business course at the College of Food Technology and then social sciences at Stow College, both Glasgow.

He also had a job stacking shelves at the Co-op on the weekends - but his only interest was making people laugh and he would regularly ditch his classes so he could travel on the bus all day working on his gags.

He said: "I used to buy an all-day ticket, pretend I was going to college and just sit on a bus for four hours, going up and back, up and back, making notes, and that's how I wrote most of my stuff."

His family were his biggest fans as he fought his way onto the comedy circuit - and travelled everywhere with the teen funnyman, whose first joke was: "I am only 17 and just got served at the bar - so get it up ye!"

His dad Andy told the Post: "In the early days I used to run him here there and everywhere to do unpaid gigs.

"I remember being in Bridge of Allan and there were eight people in the audience including myself, his mother, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law."

Kevin added: "I was under 18 so I had to have a guardian, an adult with me, at all times. Then I started getting offered gigs outside Glasgow and I needed a lift.

"I mind it was my dad, my mum, my Uncle George and my Auntie Maureen and me in the car. My family were always 50 per cent of the audience. At these low-level gigs, most of the comics bring the audience with them. I remember asking my mum, 'Is it all right if I say f*** on stage?' "

Kevin's big break came in 2009 when aged 22 he appeared on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow to a TV audience of five million people. Andy said: "He was always hopeful that some big agent would spot him. Up until the Michael McIntyre thing, that was still his hope.

"He was aware the gig was coming up and the BBC were looking for a Scots comic to put on it.

"He was at another small gig before and the comedian Craig Hill came into the green room where Kevin was and said he was going to be on the Roadshow.

"The following Friday I was dropping him off at the Antonine Sports Centre where I think he was going to run off the bad news and he got a phone call saying how would he like to appear on the Roadshow.

"He had been noticed before by getting reviews in the papers but the Michael McIntyre show was definitely the big break."

He was instantly described as the new Billy Connolly - one of his comic heroes - but he modestly deflected the comparison when likened to the Big Yin, adding: "When you break it down, I've just got a slightly better job than the average guy but I'm not a hero. I'm just relatively amusing. Maybe that's what keeps me grounded."

TOMORROW: We look at Kevin's sell-out SECC shows and what the future holds