Dillie Keane founded the funny female trio Fascinating Aida in 1983. There have been a number of line-ups over the years but at its centre have always been Dillie and Adele Anderson.

Both Dillie and Liza Pulman, who joined Fascinating Aida in 2004, are both touring separately this year while Adele battles cancer.

Dillie’s one-woman show debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer, it features a mixture of new tunes and good old favourites.

My show is a lifetime distilled into a cabaret show...

It’s quite sad and quite funny – well, very funny at times. It’s also a lifetime of looking for love. It’s songs with stories and it’s very, very personal indeed, unlike Fascinating Aida which more takes pot shots at things. This is a very personal journey, although I hate to use the word ‘journey’ – it sounds like I’m about to say “I’ll reach out” in a minute!

It was such an easy show to put together...

The songs chose themselves. I just sort of shook everything and it all fell into place.

We’ve always had solo moments in a show so being on my own is fine...

What I did find odd though was doing pantomime and not seeing the others backstage. Fascinating Aida is more than just about being on stage together – it’s about a whole life. Liza Pulman (who makes up one third of Fascinating Aida along with Adele Anderson) came to see the pantomime one night and it was such a relief to be in the dressing room with her. It’s not the end of Fascinating Aida; Adele and I have been together for 32 years.

I’m not an ad-libber by nature so everything’s scripted...

I’ll ad-lib if something very funny happens or something occurs to me but often as not it’s a scripted show. There are some brilliant improvisers out there but I’m not one of them. It’s not an audience participation show, there’s a little bit where I get people to simulate tap dancing but people aren’t usually tempted to participate.

The only thing I have to have with me is make-up...

The audience doesn’t want to look at me unmade-up. It’s a horrible sight.

The worst review I ever had...

Was when somebody once accused me of having an artichoke in my hair. I was most upset. It was a rather attractive flower on a clip and it looked lovely.

I find Miranda Hart terribly funny. She’s marvellous...

From the past though I like people like Fats Waller – people who did funny things with music. Rossini is another one. He wrote the funniest tunes and he understood better than anybody else in the history of music how to write a comic tune.

I’m hoping the audience will take away from my show...

Apart from their handbags and their coats, the feeling of having had a really good evening and having spent their money wisely. That’s really important to me – that people have a really good time.

DETAILS

Fascinating Aida’s Dillie Keane will be at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford on Sunday, February 21 at 7.30pm. For tickets £22 call 01322 220000 or visit orchardtheatre.co.uk

Her Aida colleague Liza Pulman will be at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells in Liza Pulman Sings Hollywood on Saturday, April 2. For tickets visit www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk or call 01892 530613.