After being bitten on Twitter, Mark Watson has used his new wariness about technology for his new show. He spoke to Chris Price.

He was bombarded with angry tweets from Frankie Boyle fans and had his bank account hacked, so Mark Watson’s relationship with technology has become difficult.

A forward thinking man, who likes to make people laugh with a little positive message in his shows, his latest tour unveils a much more guarded Mark.

The proud Bristolian came in for a lot of stick last year after he blogged about a joke Frankie Boyle made about a Down’s Syndrome child in his audience. Mark questioned whether the gag signified “progress” for the comedy movement.

Frankie responded that Mark was a “sellout” for his Magners Cider commercials and criticised him on Twitter, triggering a torrent of abuse.

Then, much like everything at the moment, it made Mark reflect on the impact for his two-and-a-half-year-old son. It made him think about the effects of the modern age on the average man and on his son’s future.

“The progress of information is an amazing thing, which should make us all more intelligent and informed but as with anything it depends on how well people use it,” said Mark, 32.

“It is an odd thing to think that my kid will have access to so much information at the touch of a button, which we all used to have to learn by heart. I think education will be pretty different by the time he is at school.

“On the whole you have to see it as a good thing because it is a huge step forward for humanity but it might also mean kids have an attention span of 36 seconds, tops, because they will be exposed to so many things. With YouTube clips, it is easy for kids to flick between watching 12 different things. It will be interesting to see what that does to people’s brains and whether they will be able to focus on anything.”

In Mark’s new show, the Information, he reveals how his bank account was hacked and talks about the biggest lie he has ever told.

“It is a very stupid one”, he said. “It is about lying to a taxi driver about my job. The root of my story is that I don’t normally say I’m a stand-up if I’m talking to a stranger because it leads to a lot of awkward conversations like ‘tell us a joke then’. So I have told a variety of lies about my job.

“It has got to be something you know a bit about and a couple of times – I have chosen jobs which I didn’t have a clue about and then it is pretty hard to bluff it. You really don’t want to say an astronaut. If there are any follow-up questions with that then you are in trouble.”

Mark has appeared on panel shows and hosted two series of his own radio show Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better.

Renowned as one of the country’s hardest working comics – he always uses his time twice, for example he is chatting to me in a car on the way back from having just picked up a chest of drawers with his writer and performer wife Emily Watson Howes – he does have some anxiety about how much time he gets to spend with his son.

“If you are touring it can be long hours that you are away which makes you feel guilty. It is not easy to balance the life of a comedian with the demands of a two-year-old.

“On the other hand, I am there sometimes in the day when I wouldn’t be if I had a 9 to 5 job.

“He might think it is a cool job for his dad to do. Or he might think I am massively embarrassing.”

Mark Watson performs at Canterbury’s Gulbenkian Theatre on Wednesday, October 31. Tickets £15. Box office 01227 769075.