Kayvan Novak (pictured) took ten minutes out to talk to British Comedy Guide about Facejacker, his hit prank show...

Hi Kayan. How did you first get involved in comedy?

I went drama school and then started doing various kinds of telly roles... pimps, terrorists... I thought 'I can't keep doing this - I need to flex my comedy bones'... So I then began the long painful struggle, and here we are...

Fonejacker was your first hit show. Did you know it was going to be a success when you were making it?

No. You're wildest dream when making a show is that people will love it, but whilst you're making it you've got the demons telling you 'what you doing?', 'this is wrong', 'this is a waste of time', 'people aren't going to like this', and 'it's going to be a failure'... you just kind of endeavour to keep going.

People are around you to support you, and you work with people that you trust, which makes things easier. You're in it together, you go on a journey and you come out the other end... then people are like 'I love Terry Tibbs' and it gives you more self belief to keep going.

I've always had that good strong positive feedback from fans. That has kept me going along the way. I owe a lot to them because they keep loving what I do, so I keep doing it, and hope they'll love it more... you know?

Yeah. Facejacker was the natural next step from Fonejacker and...

You say that, but actually it was a huge leap because there was no guarantee that it'd work. Firstly, I was wearing prosthetics: I'd never done before. And I was becoming a character I've only played on the telephone. Was going to work in the real world situation? It took a lot of trial and error to get it right.

We found an amazing make-up guy and we were like 'can you make me look like Terry Tibbs?'... he put the mask on me and I loved it.

The make-up must be a curse though?

I've probably sat 300 hours in the make-up chair, but I'm totally cool with it... it's fine. It's the calm before the storm.

The storm being when the character then goes off pranking?

Yeah, it's an intense period of being in character... for example being Terry Tibbs going a million miles an hour. It takes a lot of stamina to do it.

Does anyone ever catch you in an off guard moment and spot you're not who you're pretending to be?

There's been a couple of occasions, but if the environment is good it's fine. With Augustus sometimes people are like, 'oh look, he's wearing a mask'... but thankfully that's not usually whilst I'm doing the 'hit'.

Do you have a favourite character. We're guessing it's Terry?

I love playing Terry but he is gruelling. He is just a Tasmanian devil, whereas someone like Brian or Dufrais... they're more of a snake in the grass. You kind of sit and wait. I love playing them all equally. I wouldn't play a character I didn't care about.

You took many of the characters to America for the second series. Was it mainly an excuse to have a holiday out there?

Ha ha, I wish. We went to America primarily because the characters from the first series are now quite well known in the UK. I can't really walk around as Brian Badonde any more. It's all about deception, so we thought 'Lets go to America. We've got a budget to spend two months out there, let's see what we can get in two months'... and we went to LA, Pitsburg, New York and many other places. It was a proper whistle-stop tour and I'm amazed at what we managed to achieve in two months. I take my hat off to my team who are just brilliant.

Do you ever get a situation where you spend a long time setting something up, and then someone doesn't consent to that footage of them appearing in the broadcast show?

Yeah, it happens. If we do something like Dufrais, it's a big location with lots of people. Some people might not sign but most usually do, and we can edit around that.

If it's someone like Brian we'll do three or four hits in a day. So I might go to a cheese shop, then meet a rapper, then taste some whisky... so in that day we'll get something.

When it's over, how do you reveal to someone they're on a hidden camera show?

I don't do that! Nah, I'm out of there! I can't suddenly whip the mask off anyway, it would take about half an hour to get it off. I'm straight off to the next setup anyway... so someone from the production team tells them.

You appeared in the paramedic based comedy drama Sirens last year. It hasn't been given a second series. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, you do a series and you're like, 'oh they're not re-commissioning it. Oh well, never mind'. I've got plenty to be getting on with anyway, so that's ok. I enjoyed doing Sirens - it was great - but I always had my suspicion that there wasn't a strong enough creative force behind it - like a single visionary show-runner. There were too many opinions... that's always dangerous!

You were great in Hacks, the one-off satire about the phone hacking scandal. These shows we've talked about today are all Channel 4. Do you have a contract with the network?

No, I auditioned for all of those. I earned my parts. Everything I do, I've really got to sell it. Hacks they did ask me to do actually, because it was more of a voice role, but Sirens... no, I went through many auditions for that! My first audition was appalling... as I was more than happy to admit on the DVD extras.

Next up for you is a chat show involving the Terry Tibbs character?

Yeah, Terry Tibbs' chat show. We're going to do it for the Heritage Season on Channel 4 - it's their 30th anniversary. So I'm doing that as a one-off, and then hopefully they'll commission a series.

Facejacker Series 2 is out now on DVD, as is the Series 1 & 2 boxset. Extras include behind-the-scenes features, interviews, and deleted scenes. Order