THE senseless murder of Jody Dobrowski on Clapham Common in 2005, caused stand-up comedian Stephen K Amos to reconsider the direction of his life.

Jody worked at Jongleurs Comedy Club in Battersea and Stephen knew him well. The murder hit him hard.

"It really made me angry. He was a lovely man," he said. "I couldn't believe there were people out there who would hurt someone for such a ridiculous reason. That was a turning point. I decided that I needed to be completely honest in my show and talk about the things that aren't meant to be funny.

"My next show was called All of Me. I never thought I'd be on stage talking about myself. People were saying, Oh my God the funny black man is gay.' And I talked about my twin sister having breast cancer. It got an amazing reaction from people. All of us have to stand up and be counted so young people have role models.

"After one of my shows a 17-year-old came up to me and said that from now on he was going to be proud to be himself. If I can do that for one person, I'm happy."

Stephen's humorous modesty seems to have paid off. He has received several comedy awards and his fame is growing fast. He grew up in South London, one of seven children of Nigerian parents.

The family moved often because his parents were property developers ("I thought they were in the witness protection programme") and Stephen learned to use humour to make friends. He's still doing just that.

Stephen K Amos' new show, More of Me, is at Cheltenham Town Hall on November 6, at 8pm. Tickets cost £13/ concs £11 and are available from the box office.