In the whirlwind of emotions that hit him after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, one of Paul Sinha’s thoughts was “This will make great material” for his stand-up show.

“And so far it has,” said The Chase star and accomplished comedian, speaking to Society in his first media interview since revealing he has the illness, earlier this summer.

“When I say material, I mean truthful, honest material, not just cheap jokes about having a shake or a tremor, but material about the reality of it.”

Paul intends to now live life to the full, getting married and keeping busy with his quizzing and comedy careers – including performing at the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival in October with his new show Hazy Little Thing Called Love.

“I don’t have any other option but to take a very active, pro-active and optimistic attitude towards moving forward. At the end of the day, that’s the only way I’m going to live my life to its fullest,” he said.

“I can’t wallow in self-pity. I just have to move on and moving on means quizzing and performing comedy – the two things I love and want to do as much as possible.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s obviously a blow. But my attitude towards it is you have to make the best of it. In that sense, talking about it and being funny about it and engaging about it and hopefully being a spokesperson for managing the disease in a positive way is my best way forward. Not just because it’s important, but because it will help my health if I take a positive attitude to the whole thing.”

Paul, who was a GP before he moved into comedy and then becoming one of Britain’s best-loved Chasers as the Sinnerman, said his medical background meant he knew something was going wrong with his body.

It started with a frozen shoulder that wouldn’t get better, then in March this year, he started to develop a limp and realised something was up.

“I spent the month of May in New Zealand, touring there and the limp was getting worse, so I saw a neurologist as soon as I got back on May 30, and that was that,” he said.

“I had about two or three weeks in New Zealand, doing a tour in an amazing country, the gigs were all selling out and I was having an incredible time.

“I loved New Zealand, New Zealand loved me and everything was great, and yet I had this horrible sense of dread as to what to expect when I got back home.

“Part of me, emotionally and psychologically, just never wanted to get on that flight back from New Zealand because of having to face the reality of what happens next.”

As for the future, Paul is simply not dwelling on it.

“I don’t know, I just don’t. But my priority is quality of life. I have an infrastructure of family and friends which is very supportive. But my priority is to make sure I enjoy myself. To not do so would be to let myself down,” he said.

“I don’t know when it’s going to start getting worse, but I do know that I’ve probably had Parkinson’s for at least two years, I just didn’t know about it. And in those two years I’ve had an incredibly busy and fulfilled life.

“That’s what I want to carry on doing.”

At the moment, he’s fully involved in writing Hazy Little Thing Called Love, which he will be touring in the autumn, including his gig in Aberdeen.

“As usual, it’s autobiographical and it tells its own story that this year is the big year that I’m getting married and the story of how I got to that point and everything in between,” he said.

Asked how his wedding plans were going with fiance Oliver, Paul simply replied: “They’re going.”

“It’s quite a straightforward wedding with relatively no frills. We’ve hired a pub out for the whole thing.”

He will also be working his Parkinson’s into the show. “The material I have on it so far is very funny – that’s been the verdict so far of people who have seen it,” he said.

Paul is keen to point out that while most people know him from The Chase, he started his career as a comedian 16 years before joining Bradley Walsh on the popular quiz show.

“Even now, when I walk out and Bradley says it’s Paul Sinha the comedian, people still don’t know I do comedy. No matter what you do on TV that’s what people primarily know you for,” he said.

“It’s a double-edged sword because there’s no doubt being in the public eye has greatly increased my ticket sales, so I can’t complain about it.

“I think people can be a little bit surprised (at his stand-up). I’m not a blue comedian, but I do talk about adult, serious stuff on stage. It’s not just a series of anecdotes about Bradley Walsh.

“But I do consider myself a good comic in my own right and not just for a Chaser.”

He has been a lifelong quizzer, starting when he was in primary school, but said he has to work hard to amass that body of knowledge – with hours of reading and research – that makes him such a successful Chaser.

“The Chase is great fun, but it’s still a job with the various tensions, pressures and anxieties you go through over the course of an episode,” said Paul.

“But at the end of the episode, you just think ‘Aren’t I lucky I get to do this for a living’.”

But it’s stand-up which is his real love. “It’s what I love doing more than anything else in the world.

“Also, I love the fact you can literally stand on a stage and talk about anything. When funny stuff happens in my life, I’m always thinking how can I make that funny on stage. So, you have the whole of life and whole world to choose from. It’s a real luxury,” said Paul, who says he finds pretty much everything funny, from slapstick and puns to cutting clever political comedy.

That said, his comedy hero is Harry Hill, who went to the same medical school as Paul.

He said: “It’s the fact he went from being incredibly outside the mainstream, stylistically, to a well-known national treasure. It just shows if you work hard at something, you can bring your world to the general public.”

Now he’s looking forward to bringing his world to Aberdeen fans in October.

“Just don’t judge me on The Chase. I consider myself quite a nuanced and creative comedian, so don’t have any preconceptions based on what I’m like on The Chase,” he added.

Hazy Little Thing Called Love is at Park Inn on Friday October 11

For more information and tickets visit aberdeencomedyfestival.com