Comedy news: Snowed in Comedy blog: The secret life of comedians

The Canadian Rockies have filled map screen. Admittedly, it is only a few inches wide, but looking at the unbroken mass of rock that is beneath me has had an alarming effect. I have to make my way through that?

Unknown towns dot the screen, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna; places that, by the end of the week, I will be much more familiar with but at the moment seem eerily unknown.

The reason I am starting a comedy blog with a geographic description at 30,000 feet is that I am on my way to Vancouver, Canada, to spend a week following a comedy tour of the Canadian Rockies.

When I heard that veteran comic Craig Campbell as heading back to his native Canada for a series of shows I managed to empty the SSP travel fund of everything it had to buy an airline ticket and head West.

I am here to find out what it's like to follow a comedy tour. From what is involved in planning it, to how you keep your act fresh to life on the road to what inspires comedians to come up with new material from their experiences. I am joining Craig Campbell, Ed Byrne, Glenn Wool and Dan Quinn to document the trip as we make our way through the Canadian Rockies to Calgary.

Comedians live possibly one of the most varied lives of any artist. From flying to Hong Kong or Dubai to play a single night at one of the handful of rich expat comedy clubs around the globe to dropping into hospitals and schools, a comedian's life is more varied than the simple 45-minute standard set.

And as a solo performer they are regularly able to cover more gigs in a night than their musical equivalents could, which is known as 'doubling up'.

In this respect comedians by the nature of their work are able to experience and handle vastly different audiences in the space of an hour, but comedians are more versatile than that.

Like Cameleons they can adapt to make their sets suit where they are and can quickly bond with an audience by extending a comedy angle on everyday experiences whether it is being stuck in traffic or boarding down a ski slope.

Snowed In Comedy Tour is essentially about four comedians who realised they had a shared passion for winter sports and a sense of adventure. This passion has led them drive across Canada, where this passion will lead them next who knows (I heard last night about a similar adventure, but this time with kayaks).