MOST mums would be horrified if their sons threatened to give up a top university place to try their luck in the tough world of comedy.

But when 20-year-old Daniel Sloss decided to make a break for it in stand-up instead of going to Dundee University, he was surprised to find his mother well and truly behind him.

“My mum was the one who turned around and said, ‘let’s defer the place’, laughs the Fife comedian, who comes to the Laughing Pod Comedy Club, in Southend, tomorrow.

“She said, ‘it’s only for a year and you can go back to uni’. She was the one who was always pushing me to go to uni and then when I did she turned around and suggested I put it off. That was nice.”

Starting out in comedy aged 16, Daniel’s rise to comedy stardom has been fairly meteoric – and university has been permenantly ditched.

He was the first stand-up ever to perform live on the Paul O’Grady show when he was just 18, and was the youngest comedian to have a solo season in the West End.

Aged just 19, he was commissioned by the BBC to star in a TV pilot – the Adventures of Daniel.

But Daniel doesn’t consider himself to be a prodigy. He modestly explains he thinks he’s lucky to have started out at a time when comedy is enjoying the limelight.

“People saw something in me I didn’t realise I had,” he says. “Other people have had so much confidence in me and what I could do.

“Paul O’Grady trusted me enough to go on his show. I was the first stand-up they had on it. They trusted me to go on, but I was so nervous.

“I’ve always thought my age was an advantage. I’m nowhere near close to being the first stand-up who started young. Bill Hicks started when he was 13, Ross Noble famously started when he was 15.

“I was just very fortunate because I came into comedy at a time when it was on the rise again. It’s now one of the most popular things on TV.”

One person who did spot the youngster’s bags of talent was controversial comic Frankie Boyle, who became something of a mentor to Daniel after he met him at a gig.

He penned the high-profile funnyman some material and was delighted when Frankie used some of it on Mock the Week.

“He didn’t hire me because I was a brilliant joke writer,” Daniel explains unassumingly. “I’d met him once and wanted to learn how to write topical jokes, he was just teaching me to write for a deadline.

“I was just lucky enough he decided to use some of them.”

Daniel may be low-key about his talent, but he’s already nailed slots on Michael McIntyre’s Roadshow as well as making appearances on 8 out of 10 Cats, Comedy Rocks and the Rob Brydon Show.

Describing his style, the young comedian says: “It’s a mixture of storytelling and one liners. I’m not one of those comics who goes out there to change comedy and make it different.

“My favourite comedians are people I grew up watching like Jack Dee, Phill Jupitas and Mark Lamarr. It’s sound, well-finished stand-up, if it was funny then, it’s funny now.”

Daniel Sloss Support from Chris Neill, Del Stern and the Frantic Theatre Group. Guest compere Tony Cowards The Laughing Pod, South Essex College, Luker Road, Southend.

Tomorrow , 7.30pm, £10.

www.thelaughingpod.com